So long story short, I started playing miniatures games again (x-wing, dungeon command, 40k, etc.)
Looking back at Pc games I see a lot of 4x games that do well with similar turn based combat mechanics, and a tremendous amount of fantasy inspired tactical combat systems...
Perhaps my googling skills are rusty, but I can't seem to find tactical space combat games (ships vs ships).
Note that FTL does not really qualify as it is not really 1:1 and has no skirmish mode (it is an adventure)

Anyone of you familiar witb a game I might enjoy?

I'm not sure if you're looking for table-top style minatures games or realtime games, since you mentioned 40k.


Anyway, realtime top-down space combat that I've played and liked:

Star Control 2 (modern freeware port: Ur-Quan Masters) - space combat is 1-on-1, very simple by today's standards but gets its replay value from 25 totally unique ships to fight with in different match-ups.

Space Pirates And Zombies (SPAZ) - space combat is many-on-many (usually 3 vs a dozen or so, sometimes more).

Flotilla is really cool too. It's turn based in 3D space that takes ship rotation into account.

Yes, Flotilla was fun. It's very unpolished and unfinished, but was released anyway. Basically it was a tech-demo.

The dev also made the really fun Atom Zombie Smasher game, and is supposedly working on "Flotilla 2" to make the game as it really should've originally been.

Flotilla features 3D simultaneous turn-based combat (i.e. you and the AI choose your moves, and then both are executed simultaneously), ship-to-ship, where you can control multiple ships (~3-ish). You can even sorta-kinda-ish play it hotseat coop.

Basically, certain parts of your ship is heavily armored, but other parts are unarmed, so you have to plan the pitch-yaw-roll of your ship moving through space while firing, to make sure your armored sides are facing where you think the enemy will be moving to.

It's a very good concept that should be explored further. As a gamer, it ain't worth the $10 that's asked for it. Barely worth $5 (because it's unfinished and very clearly so). But as a designer, it's worth picking up for research if that style of gameplay interests you.

I'm not sure if you're looking for table-top style minatures games or realtime games, since you mentioned 40k.

Basically something that could play like a tabletop game (turn-based) but for the PC. Possibly, the design wouldn't work as a tabletop game though (how hidden information work for example).

Star Control 2 (modern freeware port: Ur-Quan Masters) - space combat is 1-on-1, very simple by today's standards but gets its replay value from 25 totally unique ships to fight with in different match-ups.

Tried that. Looked interesting, but this is too much of an adventure game for what I'm particularly interested in right now. I'm only looking for just a skirmish game.

Space Pirates And Zombies (SPAZ) - space combat is many-on-many (usually 3 vs a dozen or so, sometimes more).

That looks real-time. I'm much more into the tactical aspect of larger scale battles (say, 3+ vs 3+) turn-based.

Flotilla is really cool too. It's turn based in 3D space that takes ship rotation into account.

Looked interesting, but the 3rd dimension threw me off. It seems too much revolves around it (bottom armor, etc.)

Flotilla features 3D simultaneous turn-based combat

I'm a big fan of simultaneous turn-based, I think it works great. Not so much into 3D or complex particle effects, I feel there's already a lot of depth to 2d combat in space if only because of movement (rotation and speed, much like a car, won't behave as a typical footsoldier unit would).

But as a designer, it's worth picking up for research if that style of gameplay interests you.

Has I been looking for 3D, I would totally agree, it does look interesting if only from a purely theoretical approach (I've watched a few videos).

I liked that it was not as 'noisy' as games such as gratuitous space battles can get (where you can't really tell why you've won or loss an encounter).

Any similar game in 2d perhaps? Can be very dated, I really don't mind.

Are you thinking of something like the tactical fleet combat in the Master of Orion series? Looking at some recent MOO-likes, they seem like they they might have similar combat.

I can't think of anything that's mostly just tactical fleet battles without a lot of 4X around it, except Gratuitous Space Battles, which might not be what you're thinking of.

Believe it or not, "it" not existing would actually be good news for what I'm setting out to do... :)

Star Control 2 (modern freeware port: Ur-Quan Masters) - space combat is 1-on-1, very simple by today's standards but gets its replay value from 25 totally unique ships to fight with in different match-ups.

Tried that. Looked interesting, but this is too much of an adventure game for what I'm particularly interested in right now. I'm only looking for just a skirmish game.

Ignore story mode - it's good, but you're interested in skirmishes. The game's "Melee" mode is closer to what you're thinking of. No story. Just battle.

- Each side picks up to 14 ships.
- Each ship has a point value assigned to it, based on how powerful it is in general.
- Each fleet gets a value equal to the sum of the ships it's composed of.
- Battle begins by both players picking an initial ship.
- Each time a ship is destroyed, a player picks one of their remaining ships.
- Last player with ships remaining wins.

Some ships are strong/weak vs. specific ships (a bit like rock-paper-scissors with 25 different options to pick). Sometimes this is wildly outside of what their point value might indicate. The goal (if you want) is to optimize your fleet composition and piloting skills to take down an enemy fleet of the same point value with ships to spare.

Seems I have totally overlooked that mode!
Thanks for insisting, I will double check!

They made Panzer General's clone in space (it was Space General maybe?) but it got terrible reviews.

The thing is ship vs ship is far less exciting than soldier vs soldier (terrain, trenches, formations, visibility system, morale, etc). Anyway, approaching it as a traditional hex based tactical wargame seems to be a dead end.