Today we ran small tournament of sorts with four players. The rules were simple. The player's fleets were limited to 1,250 points. Only one capital ship was allowed and it could be no more than 625 points. Whoever wins the most games wins bragging rights. This also gave players a chance to test out some designs that don't normally get to use in the large high point games we typically play.
Most importantly to me, this gave me the opportunity to play against two people Ive never had the chance to play against.
The following Battle report is for the two game I played.
The player's fleets:
EARTH ALLIANCE from Babylon 5
IMPERIAL FLEET from Games Workshops old Space Fleet game.
The SSDs used were the NSL fleet from FT Fleet Book 1
THE NARN REGIME also from Babylon 5. One note of interest for those that have read our previous AARs- this fleet has no ships with Energy Mine launchers.
THE COLONIAL FLEET from Battlestar Galactica. All the models here are produced by Ravenstar Studios.
The first game had me facing off against the Earth Alliance.
The first turn was more active than I'm used to. The Kaladan class Light Battlestar, Daedalus, launched two viper squadrons. The hanger bay crew then scrambled to get the third and fourth squadrons into the launch tubes. The Hyperion fired its long range weapons on one of the Panther class destroyers and caused a threshold check. The fragility of the design became immediately apparent. It lost one of its Salvo launchers and several other systems. Not a good start. The return fire from the rest of fleet was negligible at best. The fleet admiral was beginning to wonder if he had underestimated his obviously low tech, primitive, opponent.
The next turn went a little better. Daedalus launched her remaining vipers and the Destroyers fired their missile salvos at the Artemis cruiser on Hyperion's left flank. Half of them got passed her defenses and scored massive damage causing a threshold check that disabled several weapons and fire control systems.
All the Earth ships fired on the Cronus Gunstar causing heavy damage but the ship was still in the fight.
The next turn the earth ships slowly advanced while the damaged colonial destroyer swung around the rear of the opposing fleet hoping to get an "up the kilt" shot. The vipers swooped in on the other Artemis and pounded it almost to scrap. Unfortunately PDS Fire on one of the squadrons reduced it to only two vipers.
Having the initiative the Cronus fires all of its weapons at the right Artemis and while it scored with its lighter weapons it missed completely with its main guns. The Earth fleet returned fire and obliterated both destroyers. One thing about the Earth designs is their excellent all around weapons layout. They are almost as dangerous from behind as in front.
On the fourth turn the Daedalus accelerated hoping to get passed the Earth lines. With few options the damaged Cronus turned to port to cover the Battlestar. The vipers split up and each group attacked a separate Artemis. The Artemis on the right managed to wipe out one squadron but the remaining squadron avenged their comrades and caused a threshold check resulting in damage to its engineering section. The ship would explode at the end of the turn.
The other two squadrons were not able to destroy their target but they did inflict enough damage to knock it out of the battle.
Earth force had the initiative and the Hyperion fired its aft weapons into Cronus virtually gutting the ship in a string of ‘run away 6s'.
Turn 5 Earth gets the initiative again. The surviving Artemis, with is command and control systems still down tries to make a run for it. The Gunstar tries to do the same after failing to repair any of its damage. The Vipers make what they thought would be a near suicidal run at the Hyperion. The Earth fighters try and destroy as many as possible but enough get thru to do some serious damage to the ship.
Unfortunately for the gunstar the Hyperion's aft weapons are still functional and she cuts the Cronus in half. Only the Kaladan light Battlestar is left tho she is, thus far, unscathed. She returns Hyperion's fire with her Type 1 guns and scores some minor damage but with the shape that Hyperion is now in, any damage is significant.
The next to last turn saw the Vipers going after the crippled Artemis and finally destroying her. Nearly out of fuel at this point the vipers can make one more attack run before they will have to return to the Battlestar. The Battlestar fired again, finally getting its forward guns back into a position where they could fire and…missed! Hyperion returned fire inflicting some minor armor damage.
The final turn the colonials won the initiative. The last of the vipers make another run on Hyperion only to get badly shot up by her fighter screen. They did manage to score a few more points of damage before their fuel status forced them to disengage and head ‘back to the barn'. The Battlestar closed the range and opened up with everything she had. For once the gunners earned their pay and scored hits with both main guns, doing double damage with one. Hyperion broke apart as her crew abandoned ship.
All and all a great game and a good chance to evaluate some ships I hadn't used before. The destroyers have since been redesigned so only time will tell if those ‘refits' will work better. One thing is for sure- they can't be worse!
Some action shots of the other game in progress. The Narns wiped out the Imperials for few losses in return.
For Game two I was matched with the imperial player. We decided to allow him to re-do his fleet list so he would have a more sporting chance against fighters. He also used two capital ships unbeknown to me until I realized it after the battle. Still it gave me a chance to see how the bigger NSL ships did in battle. The two capital ships were Maria Von Burgund class BBs and at least two of the smaller ships were Radetzky class escort cruisers.
The first two turns nothing went according to plan. First the two destroyers disobeyed orders and decided to go on a wide flanking maneuver. They had this stupid idea to use the asteroids as cover and the launch their missiles as they came around the other side. The Battlestar launched her vipers in quick order and then followed them into the battle missing with both her main guns two turns in a row. The Cronus gunstar had better luck but took the brunt of the enemy return fire and was destroyed by the end of turn 1.
The next turn saw a near collision as one enemy battleship closed to point blank range. The vipers fearing for their Battlestar (and home) dove in her. Only one of the escort cruisers was close enough to lend fire support and it wasn't enough. The vipers shot her up considerably leaving the ship a virtual sitting duck for the Battlestar.
The Colonial ship opened fire on the battleship destroying it. It also opened fire on the escort cruiser that tried to defend it but again missed with most of its weapons.
The Imperials however were more fortunate. The other battleship opened fire on both destroyers vaporizing one outright and wrecking the other. Her captain ordered abandon ship while one of the other Imperial escort cruisers finished her off. That crew would later become POWs and spend the rest of the war in an imperial labor camp.
"Never give up, never surrender!"…..and rarely hit anything either. The following turn the Colonials got the imitative again and the vipers decided to start stripping the imperial player of his escort ships. At least that was the idea. They lined up on the escort that had protected the dead battleship only to have all the electronics in the vipers go haywire. (in other words I rolled all 1s).
Nice huh?
The Battlestar managed to score some damage on the ships but the return fire from the battleship and the rest of the fleet was devastating.
With both fire controls knocked out there was little she could do and was subsequently destroyed.
In a last desperate act the vipers went in and attacked the same ‘blessed' escort only to have all but three of their pilots shot down.
This was a great game too and a lesson to myself about sticking to the doctrine of how your fleet is supposed to operate. Every game up until now I've kept the ships fairly tight with each other only breaking off the smaller faster ones once the battle lines drew close. In this battle I broke the destroyers off first which kept their missiles out of play. Without that support the other two ships were easy pickings- bad die rolls notwithstanding! LOL On the bright side the captain of the Battlestar won't be present for his court martial on charges of incompetence.
Pictures from the other game. The Narns were victorious again and this time actually had to chase down their opponents.
This was a great first ‘Fleet Bash' and fun was had by all. The Narn player won the day with two victories and no loses.
Any and all comments welcome!
paints a garage model inspired by sci-fi gaming.
