SPACE VOTING RESULTS:
Voters, By Experience - Twenty Years or More

Silent Death fleet battle as part of a home-grown campaign. Played on a ping pong table with over 300 ships [03 Nov 1999]

There I was with the rest of the Espan Reserve unit #127 "Dirtfarmers" patroling the fringes of our territory. We tore into those Kashmeri rats like a vrak worm on brreg rice. Our meager force of 4x Blood Hawks, 4x Stingers, 4x Saucer Shuttles keyed their attack pattern's by slotting in around our primary elements 2x Kosmos and 2x Stratta. No doubt we were out-gunned, we lined up against an impressive Kashmere force including 4x Helbenders, 4x Maruts a Varuna a dredded Black Widow, and who knows what else? Anyway, the whole assault was a calvacade of ineptitude. Don't get me wrong, the tactics we sound but nobody could hit anything, not even the Black Widow. Odds are the Kashmere would have comeout on top, if he had takent he time to think about it, but the battlefield does not give a man that time so he left the field in defeat. In all honesty, if they had not turned tail and fled it may have ground down to a tie, or those Kashmeri punks may have pulled it out. [03 Nov 1999]

A past game of Full Thrust (2nd edition) took place around an unnamed planet, smack in the middle of two nebulas. My opponent and I chose 1000 point fleets, and set course to engage. My tactics were to overwhelm him with fighter squadrons; he concentrated on missiles and larger ships. Several turns later, I had missed with too many torpedoes, and he had destroyed the engines on an otherwise undamaged heavy cruiser with a well-timed pair of needle missiles. I finally conceded when his point defense batteries eliminated my last effective fighter squadron, and my lone carrier was about to appear around the planet in front of his 2 relatively unscathed cap. ships. Next time, I'll make sure to use torpedo fighters that can actually damage a ship through multiple layers of screens. Or maybe his missiles are the way to go... [27 Apr 99]

We had a battle of two battlecruisers on 8 destroyers in a playtest for "Exordium Tactical". The chief designer managed to pilot one of his battlecruisers into a planet, and the destroyers were able to quickly put an end to the rampaging ruptors of the surviving BC. [19 Apr 99]

I only recently bought Battlefleet Gothic, so my most recent game was an "exploratory" to try out the rules. We used only the four Imperial and four Chaos cruisers included in the basic game, and played a fairly straightforward "head-on" engagement between the two squadrons. It was a fairly entertaining experiment, even given that we were VERY slow, as we were more or less learning the rules as we went. Both sides were considerably less than expert at their maneuvering (didn't have any familiarity with the nuances of maneuver in the system, as you'd expect), and we ended up pounding each other pretty severely: the Chaos ships' faster speed let them close faster, but this played into the Imperials' seemingly heavier weapons batteries (at least, for the ships we selected). The Imperials won, but just barely: there were two badly damaged Imperial cruisers against a single shot-up Chaos ship when we ended the game by mutual consent. I'm very interested to see what an engagement with escort squadrons (and the commanders' adaptations to the previous slugfest) will be like; we plan to use some Full Thrust ships to mimic the two fleet's escorts for our next match, as we won't have any of the proper GW escorts painted and ready to go for a little while yet. In all, an enjoyable game so far! [13 Apr 99]

My latest battle envolved a Gamilon carrier task force against an Earth Battle Group composed of several different battleship classes. The Gamilons were taken by surprise and launched a coordinated attack with battlecraft and destroyers to delay the Earth force, while the carriers made a run for it. Things were looking bleak for the Gamilons, until a critical hit took out one of the EDF Borodino class BBs. This event caused the EDF player to think twice about such a hasty pursuit, especially if it meant risking his heavy fleet units. The delay gave the Gamilons just enough edge to escape with their Carriers, but at the cost of sacrificing their destroyer escorts and a battleship. Emperor Desslok was not pleased and a punitive Gamilon task force was rushed to the area to seek revenge. [12 Apr 99]

At Winter Fantasy in Chicago recently, I refereed/demoed several games of Star Blazers Fleet Battle Syetem. One of the more interesting was between the mighty Gamelons against the dastardly Earth "Defence" Force. The Players started by picking out their ships. They got a little coaching so that there was some balance, but mostly they just picked models they liked. play started with two players in dagonally opposite corners.The grain of the hexes favored direct movement. The Gamelons knew right away that they had to close quickly and engage before the EDF heated up their Wave Motion Guns. The EDF also had the advantage in range, the the noble Gamelons, in Samuri spirit, took a step closer to their enemy. The exterminator class destyroyers bypassed the earth destroyers and began scoring hits. The Earth player got emotional and loosed a cloud of missiles against the Gamelons, which, along with the superior EDF beam weapons pretty much wiped out the small ships, but, EDF player rolled cold dice and an attack that should have eliminated the escorts allowed two gamelon destroyers to survive, unscathed. The Gamelon gloated, because he had emptied the missile racks of his enemy, and, they all bunched together for mutual defence. He then used his rather nasty "smite" system to dump a minefield in the middle of the EDF formation. This time, the EDF player rolled well, and the mines were less effective than they could have been, but the Gamelon player got a lesson in EDF destroyers. A cloud of EDF Missiles concentrated on the "flagship" took it out, but, by now the capitol ships were in range. The Gamelon had decided to just charge in and there was no formation of any sort left on either side just bunch of individual engagements. The Gamelons let loose with missiles and beam weapons, and the dice were kind to the Gamelons. All the EDF ships had 3-4 critical hits on them. The Gamelons had more ships, and while the fleet took as much damage, it was spread out more. Most Gamelons had only one critical. Now I gloated as I rolled for the criticals. An Earth Battleship blew up in spectacular fashion! The EDF player knew he had lost, but, by agreement and mutual exaughtion, the players allowed the EDF to use the one operational Wave Motion Gun that was "hot." The result was a dead Gamelon Battleship. The EDF escort screen was intact, but the capitol ships had all been mauled, one destroyed outright and others that had critical hit results that were more than nuisences. The Gamelons had lost most of their escorts, and had lost two capitol ships, but the core of the fleet was in very good shape. The one battleship was really a "gimme" and the EDF commander knew he would have to withdraw. Both playes had fun. I would have enjoyed it more if the mine attack had been successful, as the Gamelons would have been able to envelope the EDF. As it was, the cluster-f*** that resulted could have gone either way. [12 Apr 99]

Most recent was Star Fleet Battles; SFB is a great duel game but breaks down when more ships are involved. I prefer Full Thrust for groups of ships, and Jovian Chronicles for realistic space combat [6 Apr 99]

My last SF starship combat game was a B5 scenario I ran at our local club, set during the Narn-Centauri war and using the TBP variant of the Full Thrust rules. An EarthForce squadron was recovering a covert science team from a system in a backwater near the Narn-Centauri border (unspecified research was going on). A nasty three-way action ensued which saw the Earthers getting away largely undamagedbut with the CO of one of the cruisers facing a court martial for opening fire contrary to orders. [2 Apr 99]

I currently have a pbem game of Babylon 5 Wars going. I'm flying a Centauri squadron (BC, 3xCA, 3xDD) against a Narn squadron. Firepower is still in my favor, but I'm worried about having fewer, smaller fighters than the Narns do. [30 Mar 99]

A Dilgar war playtest for Babylon 5 wars. Earthforce vs Dilgar. EF: 2 Hyperion, 2 Olympus, 12 Tiger Starfuries. DL: 1 Strike cruiser, 3 frigates, 24 fighters. Earthforce destroyed 2 Dilgar frigates for exchange of minor damage. Dilgar concede. [30 Mar 99]

At at the local VallyCon convention, I ran a verson of my Sci-Fi Crossover Full Thrust game. Star Destroyers from Star Wars vs a Federation fleet from Star Trek and a couple Earthforce ships from B5. The Star Destroyers won again mainly due to the novice players on the ST and B5 side not using their ships abilities to the fullest but everyone had fun. Sci-Fi Crossover wil be back at GenCon and this time a couple Battlestars and some SCVNs from Space Above and beyone will show up. [29 Mar 99]

Using Star Wars based vessels and Silent Death rules an Alliance fighter force overwhelmed the fighter escorts of a Star Destroyer (represented as an escort class ship) which they then destroyed with a mass torpedoe launch. The Star Destroyer commander was, shall we say, more than a little surprised. [28 Mar 99]

Hosted a demo. game of FULL THRUST at a friend's Book/gaming store,had five peole show up,did the cruiser demolation derby.lasted 5 turns won by my 11y/o son because he started out all along on one end of the table,everybody else started out in weapons range and began to pound on each other so weaking themselves.And then one of then decided to try to engage his ftl drive making himselve a wounderful fireball.That's when my son moved in killing the cripples and winning the game. [28 Mar 99]

Full thrust: Kra'Vak vs NAC. Kra'Vak defeated the NAC (Human) in a close run battle using house movement and fire sequence rules. [26 Mar 99]

A storyline battle for a piece of ongoing space fiction. It can be read at: http://www.concentric.net/~Los/ft/lossf.htm Also several battles at the Ground Zero Games East Coast Convention. AAR available here: http://people.canoe.ca/jhan/ft/gzgecc/ [26 Mar 99]

My NSL BDN, Escort Cruiser, and BB against a friend's FSE fleet, both of approximately 1000 Full Thrust Fleet Book points. While closing, I was too predictable, kept my BDN's fighters screening the BDN instead of the leading BB, and watched two of my three ships evaporate in a flurry of FSE SML's. I guess we DO run too slow at start of battle.

I consider SFB a board game, though I own and have played figs and the table-top rule varient. I wish I had a way to update this; I know I'm going to get home and suddenly remember, or more likely, find in the basement, other systems I've played and want to again. ;->= Speaking of not remembering, the GZG ships for Full Thrust do have an approximate scale, but can't think of it right now. *blush* [26 Mar 99]

I ran a convention game of Full Thrust as an attack against an escorted convoy. Each team choose an attacking force and scored points for damage to the freighters. The game was run twice with both teams as attacker and defender. [26 Mar 99]

Been awhile since we played. A big FSE/NAC Full Thrust fleet battle. Still can't figure how to offset those FSE missiles. Intend to put together some more focused scenarios later this year. Full Thrust is a terrific game, and deserves to be played more often. That we've been away from it for so long speaks more to the lack of time in my gang's gaming life than it does of the quality of FT -- this is a game that everyone wants to play again. [26 Mar 99]

Forces: Dilgar - 2 Targath Strike Cruisers 1 Protra Scoutship 2 Ochlavitwa Destroyers 1 Tratharti Gunship 48 Thorun Dartfighters (me) Hyach - 1 Urutha Kal Dreadnought 1 Irokai Kam Battlecruiser 1 Tachila Kor Scout Carrier 1 Senchlat Kes Attack Scout 1 Okath Kat Fast Frigate 25 Dartha Medium Fighters 5 Dovoch Interdict Fighters (2 friends) Period: Late War - all refits in place. We played all known 2E rules, except we didn't use called shots (for the Point Pulsar), as I think they skew the game. In the absence of 2E critical charts, we gave a +4 to critcal rolls caused by Masers (formerly known as Gamma Lasers). The Hyach are in close formation, except for the Okath Kat, which is split off with 2 flights of fighter for cover I have 2 groups: the Ochlavitas, and the Targaths and Tratharti. Each is supported by 4 flights of Thoruns. The Protra trailed behind. For the first three turns, everyone turtles heavily, and closes with no fire exchanged. Turn 3 The 2 Ochlavitas take the front off of the Senchlat Kes, 4 flights of Thoruns maul the Okath Kat, stripping 3 ML, and causing an Engine and a Reactor crit. The thoruns pay a heavy price as they lose 14 of their number to Darthas and Masers. Although about half of my flights are tasked with anti-fighter work, no Hyach fighters are lost (I _hate_ the chart). The Hyach ships hold their fire, mostly. Turn 4 Much fire exchanged, fleets at close range now. The wounded Senchlat kes is killed by Targath 1. The Irokai Kam loses it's fwd. section to the Tratharti and Targath 1, while a flight of Thoruns remove it's stbd. weapons. The Urutha Kal loses it's Spinal Laser to an Ochlavita at point blank range, also suffering moderate structural damage. The Okath Kat's suffering continues, taking another engine crit. , and a C&C crit.from fighters.the Tachila Kor recieves light damage from some Thoruns.Fighter combat is more even this turn, with the hyach losing 7 fighters to 6 Thoruns killed. The Hyach returned fire, killing Targath 2 with short-range hits from a Spinal Laser, and a Mega Plasma Cannon, plus lighter weapons (actually, it took enough damage to kill the facing structure, the primary structure, and the far side structure, with damage left over!).Targath 1 took heavy stbd. structure damage from the Okath Kat. Ochlavita 1 recieves a Spinal Laser hit at 1 hex range, but only loses it'd Main thrust, and some structure (!). Turn 5 Fighters continue hitting the Okath Kat, which loses 7 more power, and it's computer. The Tachila Kor is hit by the Tratharti and Targath 1, but is still mostly okay. Ochlavita 2 takes the main thrust off of the Urutha Kal. In return, Ochlavita 1 loses it's rear hull, Targath 1 loses it's stbd. side, and the Tratharti's rear is hanging by a thread. 15 Darthas and Dovochs remain, and 20 Thoruns. We had to call it here as it was midnight, and snowing, and 2 of us had a 1 1/2 hour drive home. It was a good game, the Dilgar had an edge, but the outcome was by no means assured. Lessons The Hyach should have opened fire at long range - it's their biggest advantage. Dartha / Dovoch flights are *vicious*, plus the ability to interdict a whole flight makes it very hard to hit ships protected by Dovochs with fighters, much less the flights themselves. I used to prefer the Tratharti to the Ochlavita, but as I play, this is changing - The Ochlavita has an impressive ability to get behind an enemy and stay there. One of my opponents mistook the "K" in tachila Kor for an "H", leading to a truly humiliating local sobriquet for this fine ship... . -Kle. [26 Mar 99]