"There seems to be something wrong with our ships today"
In this game i wanted to try out two of my newest Colonial Fleet models and our Space Marine player was ready to give his Battlefleet Gothic ships another try. The scenario was a simple meeting engagement.
The colonial fleet:
models by Ravenstar Studios and hanger 18. Stands by Corsec Engineering
The Space Marine Fleet:
models by Games Workshop- Specialist Games OOP
Set up
I was not thrilled abt going up against a Battle barge without viper support. The colonials without fighters goes way against the grain of 'common sense'. I figured the game would come down to the Assault star and SM Barge slugging it out and which ever ship came out on top would win the game game. However the Assault Star would be little more than a spectator in this fight.
For their part, the Marines deployed using the asteroid field as cover. A good placement I thought.
The first turn the colonials had the initiative. For whatever reason the Marines chose not to launch any fighters- all of them heavy attack craft. The colonials launched all of their missiles, eight salvos in all.
Both fleets conducted their movement and the missile salvos locked on to their designated targets
I had never had alot of luck with missiles in previous games until the opposing fleet started taking damage. What happened next was a complete shock to both sides. The Marine ships were simply ill prepared for such an attack and sorely lacking in point defense. Every ship except the Hunters had ADFC but it didnt help much. One cruiser was destroyed and the Battle Barge took 69 points of damage utterly destroying it. Both of us were stunned. I offered to reset the game or change my fleet. My opponent wanted to keep going so we did.
I had the initiative so I fired first. the assault Star chose three targets, one of the SM cruisers and two of the Hunters.
One hunter took only a couple points of damage, the second was badly damaged. The cruiser however was virtually wrecked when one of the class 5 guns tore a hole in her from the bow and exiting through the bridge killing almost everyone on board.
One of the surviving SM cruisers fired on the assault star. Its bombardment cannon tore a hole straight through the armor and destroyed several tables in the forward officers mess.
The Horus Gunstar fired at one of the hunters.
The lakotas and the ballistea also fired and scored a few minor hits on the same hunter.
The next turn the Hunters were in a position to launch there own missile salvos.
The colonials also launched another wave of missiles.
All the Space Marine missiles targeted the Assault Star. however colonial Point Defense was much denser than their opponents. The large ship had eight PDS by itself.
Two of the colonial salvos targeted two hunters
The remaining salvos went after the last two cruisers
Despite the colonial defensive fire three missiles got thru and destroyed most of the armor belt on the Assault star.
The space marines fared far worse however. Both cruisers were annihilated as well as one hunter.
One hunter fired its Gatling battery blasting the last of the armor off the big Colonial ship. The Assault star fired back and destroyed both of the remaining hunters.
All in all a short bloody devastating game. Granted my missile rolls were higher than they should have been but even so neither of us expected tings to go they way they did.
Any and all comments welcome!
touches up a toy car.
