This was the first chance I've had to put the Brigade 'American Republic' ships on the table and test their designs. It also gave us a chance to play-test a scenario we'll be running at an upcoming tournament. The map is from Corsec Engineering as are the stands the ships are mounted on.
The Objectives- The Repair Depot ships. The large 'Forge Class Dock is made by Ravenstar Studios. The Repair Frame is by Shapeways.
The Attacker – Brigade Models 'American Republic' (AMR)
The Defender- Battlestar Galactica Colonial Fleet. Models by Ravenstar Studios
The setup- Both players deployed according to the scenario. The colonials took three defense satellites armed with turreted K-guns.
We house ruled it that any ship starting inside the forge class dock could not be targeted until they un-docked.
We rolled for the damage on the docked ships which resulted in the Atlas losing one of its PDSs and a Hanger bay that was holding the raptor squadron (torpedo fighters). One Caracol lost all of its armor and the other had to make threshold checks on all of its guns but all passed.
The first turn the AMR charged in guns blazing. The docked colonial ships rolled terrible for their activations. The colonial patrol ships accelerated tword the approaching smaller AMR ships that were going after the heavy tug only to have the AMR super dreadnaught blow one apart from astern.
An AMR light cruiser and heavy torpedo destroyer line up on the docked caracol. Even at maximum range the destroyer managed to hit with two of its torpedoes and inflict a fair amount of damage.
The colonial return fire was mostly directed at the SDN and did manage to damage half of the first row hull boxes.
The next turn the AMR cruisers turned to close with the repair frame while the CL and HDD closed with the colonial tug. The tug fired up its engines, with the docked caracol in tow, and began moving in attempt to keep the range open.
The SDN closed with the Forge Dock. None of the docked colonial ships activated this turn.
The AMR CL and HDD fire at the fleeting tug inflicting a fair amount of damage but not enough to cripple its engines.
The SDN fired at the dock and with a string of runaway 6s managed to destroy it. The Atlas Battlestar really needed to have passed its activation die rolls this turn.
The colonial defense satellites, along with colonial Brenik patrol ships, fired on and badly damaged the AMR CL.
The AMR cruisers unleash all their weapons on the repair frame mauling it.
The beginning of the end, turn 3. The Atlas rolls for activation again and is one short! With an SDN screaming in from directly astern things are looking grim.
The rest of the AMR fleet closes in on their targets while the colonial patrol ships try and get to point blank range with the smaller AMR ships.
The colonial satellite fires at the lead cruiser damaging it. Both cruisers fire all their weapons at the repair frame and their Scatter Packs at the satellite. The satellite suffers a mere two points of damage.
The repair frame however is destroyed.
The caracol docked to the tug activated this turn and fired everything it had into the AMR destroyer causing severe damage.
Unfortunately it was not enough to take it out and between the destroyer and the CL, the colonial tug was destroyed.
They're victory was short lived however as the two colonial patrol ships swooped in, and with help from the defense satellites, obliterated the CL and destroyer.
The AMR SDN fired most of its weapons into the Atlas but saved a few to destroy one of the patrol ships with an 'up the kilt' shot. The damage to the Battlestar was considerable but she was still very much in the fight.
"To the last breath I stab at thee" Turn 4. The atlas activates and launches Vipers that swoop in on the nearly defenseless cruisers (remember they spent their scatter packs on the satellite).
The SDN almost ran over the Atlas and fired all her weapons at point blank range before peeling off to avoid a collision.
The attack was devastating and the battlestar broke apart and she launched escape raptors.
At that point we decided to call the game. the vipers would have easily wrecked both cruisers but would be little more than bugs on a windshield when they went after the SDN.
The SSDs and final damage tally
All in all a good dry run for the scenario. Poor fleet mix was the single biggest factor for the colonials losing I think. He took one big ship and no cruiser support instead relying on much smaller ships. Plus the colonial player had never designed defenses before and could have made much better design choices. Missiles instead of K-gun or even fighter bases for example.
I think when we run the scenario at the tourney I'll provide some ready-made defenses for players to use if they wish.
As for the AMR ship designs, most are just slightly tweaked ships out of Fleet Book 1 and I thought they worked fine under the circumstances. It remains to be seen how they will do against an opponent that is able to maneuver freely.
Any and all comments welcome!
