War Captain's Companion expands on the ship combat for 2d edition Spelljammer provided within the original boxed set. It has more detailed combat rules, descritpions of all kinds of spaceships, their equipment, way to maintain, obtain and fix them, etc. The main portion of the publication is ship descriptions and combat rules though - this one's made for this specific purpose, and for advanced space combat, it is pretty useful and well written.

Now, for the product available here: originally this one came in a box, but here it's either a PDF or all the contents packed into a singe, laser-printed print-on-demand book. Neither's perfect. Obviously the hexagonal playmat, the paper-mini-ships and combat counters are copletely unusable in the Print-on-demand format. The ship size comparison poster is on the verge of being of any use and even the player aid cards are just pages in the book, so their use becomes limited. Furthermore, the print itself is slightly blurry, it has a little blue haze, it's not as clear as for example the Spacefarer's Handbook's POD version. For these reasons, I also bought the PDF version, but the image quality is uneven. It has the same slight blur in places and the minis look okay at best. In the end I had to ask personal scans from someone else and then I had to manually retouch these scans to make some super-sharp minis. I couldn't work with the ones provided here.

All in all, the information in this one is useful, definitely cranks up the space combat to a more engaging level (but you can just use the rules found in the original spelljammer box-set as well), that said, the quality should definitely be better than this. PS: the book arrived very slightly damaged as well.

For those planning to start adventures in the 2nd edition Spelljammer setting, this book is rather useful. You can set up new characters specific to the campaign setting, as the book contains new race, class/kit, proficiency descriptions - but also describes the workings of space based organizations and even has some useful tips for DMs on setting up campaigns. You'll definitelly need the Spelljammer boxed set for your campaign, but this little booklet is a nice addition to that. Furthermore, it is practically tailor-made for being print-on-demand: It's almost entirely black and white with mostly line-based graphics. It looks rather good. Some graphics here and there have a slight blur and the occasional colors are a little off, but I honestly don't mind that. All in all, a really good, but maybe not a must-have product. The main reason I'm reducting a point is the slightly damaged state my book arrived.

A Note on the premium color version: (tldr: don't buy that version)

First of all, I'd like to echo every previous review - this book is invaluable. And yet, I have to rate my purchase a 3/5. I'll make things clear further on. Basically, the AD&D second edition base rules (the PHB, the DMG and the MM) bundled up in a tightly knit bunch. If you're still playing ad&d 2nd edition or plan to start, you need this book. Especially the digital version.  If is super-easy to navigate and everything is crystal clear. Now, when it comes to physical versions, there are a lot of options. I purchased the highest of the high ends: the premium color hardcover version. And it was a premium disappointment. The book, as it can be seen in the digital version as well, comes with public domain artwork. That's understandable, but a number of images have really bad compression atrifacts. That's something you're so used to on a monitor, you don't even realize it's there. On a printed page, it's baffling. But where it absolutely differs from the digital version are the colors. While the images in the PDF look vivid and colorful, the premium print is washed out, muddled, dull and almost gray (and the quality of the laser printing definitely doesn't help). I have to commend the DrivethruRPG support staff, as they did their best to help, but the problem seems to be with the source the prints are made from. For the moment, all color versions will look pretty bad.

That said, Do I recommend this product? Absolutely! Now, should you get this book, I'd suggest the digital version - if you want a physical copy however, I strongly suggest going with a grayscale copy (and pray for the delivery service to handle your package with care). It's less than a third of the price of the premium color, and probably looks better in the end .

It's car wars. Everyone knows car wars. The only reason I'm writing here is to warn other potentional customers: Quite a number of map sheets in this package is horribly warped. Almost as they were not even scanned but photographed and then inadequately "fixed up" in photoshop. It's just really bad quality work. I tried to contact DrivethruRPG about the matter, but so far I got no response.