Starmada X is the latest evolution of the Starmada rules, which grew out of usenet discussions back in 1994. Since those days, the Starmada rules have slowly grown in scope and detail, acommodating more and more features that eventually turned it into a commercial starship combat game. Here's where we see how the latest version measures up.
The Book
Starmada X: Brigade comes in at only 128 pages, and with very little filler artwork. There are no page-dominating masterpieces, mainly some black and white works in the space between the two columns of text on each page. However, it becomes increasingly obvious that the art was not the main focus in the organization of the book itself. Each aspect of gameplay falls under its own section, and there is very little rules "bleeding": All of the rules pertaining to a particular aspect of the game can be found in its own section. All results of damage can be found in the combat section, for example, and don't unexpectedly show up in places like movement or weapons.
The starship design section of the book is actually longer than the rules, and for good reason. Starmada, being a universal combat game, relies on an "effects-based" system for its designs: The system is built more around what a system does than how it works. The math involved in construction is quite doable by hand and calculator, but Majestic 12 games provides a ship design sheet based in Excel on their website which potentially cuts down the design time to a few minutes, as well as preparing a printable SSD (Ship Status Display) during the process. The number of effects and systems available for ships in Starmada means that finding a setting that can't be emulated with the construction system is fairly rare. The one sticking point of the system is that aside from special equipment weapons, a vessel can only have three kinds of regular armaments total.
The third major section of the book gives a grand total of 72 ready-to-play designs based on Brigade Models's line of starship minis. While not necessarily "optimized" in terms of using all of the space available to the hull size in question, it does give a fairly good idea of the range of vessels that can be constructed using the Starmada design system, from small corvettes all the way up to and including massive battlecarriers and dreadnoughts of all descriptions. The section for each nation's ships is preceded by a few pages of fluff describing the faction and their preferred organization and tactics, as well as some sample fleets with point costs. The actual SSDs are placed after the descriptive section, two to each page.
The last section of the book includes the original, free Starmada rules as they appeared in 1994. Aside from being a nice bonus, it gives one an idea of how far the game has actually come since then, and all of the new levels of functionality that have made it into the game itself.
The Game
Starmada X is a simple, though not overly-simplistic game. All of the game's resolution mechanics revolve around the use of the D6, the most common and easily obtainable type of die. In a standard pick-up game, fleets are balanced by points, and the designers of Starmada X obviously gave their own point system a great deal of thought, as it is one of the most balanced systems in production. It regularly passes both the "duel" and "swarm"(OGRE) tests, even with varying design philosophies, and there are extremely few ways to "break" the system.
The usual setup is the same as most other hex-based games. Players place their fleets within a certain number of hexes of the edge of the map. The movement phase is based on a WEGO system: Rather than rolling for initiative and having one fleet move first, or alternating ships, each player pre-plots their fleet's movement on their ships' SSDs, and both move simultaneously. This can actually save time, as "chess" movement can mean that the players spend time re-evaluating the entire board with each single move. By default, movement is handled like traditional wet-navy or ground wargames. The movement allowance of a vessel affects how far/how many times it can change facing in a single movement phase. Inertial/Vector movement is an optional rule, which may irk proponents of other, more "crunchy" space combat games.
Fighters have their own phase: They move after ships, but they attack before the ships do in the main combat phase. This gives fighters the distinct advantage of being able to cripple a vessel's capabilities before it can even fire back at the fighters with its weapons or special equipment, which can be a sore spot for those who prefer less fighter-oriented games, like myself. However, one has to pay through the nose in points in order to get fighter fleets of any large size on the board.
In the main combat phase, the regular ships exchange fire. All ship weapons have four inherent properties, plus their special effects, if any. Their to-hit number, which is the base roll required to score a hit, their rate of fire, which is how many times they can attack in a round, penetration, which is the number of times they can attempt to defeat a ship's shields, and damage, which is how much damage they do for each successful penetration. All damage in this phase is simultaneous, and only takes effect at the end of the combat phase. Damage is by rolled on the damage track, unique for each ship, and each roll affects which systems are destroyed or damaged by each point of weapon damage. The main thing I appreciate about the damage system is that there is no "critical chart": there is no way to take out a pristine ship with a single fluke roll, meaning that people who prefer small fleets with big ships aren't arbitrarily penalized by a random table.
The end phase is where destroyed ships are removed from the board, damage takes effect, and ships can launch things like mines, fighters, attack drones and other such things.
Conclusion
If you're looking for scientific realism in your space combat game, or an otherwise high level of crunch, Stramada probably isn't the game for you (there are ertainly several that are, however), but the games was desigtned to be easy to learn, fairly-quick playing, and a game more than a simulation Starmada X is very worth the cost if that's what you're looking for.
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