SPACE VOTING RESULTS:
Rules Regularly Played - Star Fleet Battles

It was a 1500 point Battle Fleet Gothic Game between Imperial and Chaos fleets. Imperial won. [3 Nov 1999]

StarFleet Battles. 2 Constellation Class cruisers vs 2 Klingon D7's, upgraded with missile packs. A few asteroids for terrain (10..all moving 1 hex per turn in the same direction). The two Federation ships concentrated their fire on one D7 until it exploded. The other then left rather quickly. I like the detail of the game, but many ships in an action slows the game down greatly. Its also hard to get a "kill", since a badly hurt ship can usually get up enough speed to get off board. [15 Sep 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]

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]

Been Playing Star Blazers Fleet Battle System. A great game that's a lot of fun. [11 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]

It's been a while, but I played a game of Starmada. I had a few cloaking ships and some big battleships. Wound up getting my butt kicked cause the other guys rolled extremely well, and I couldn't get a good roll to save my life. [31 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]

Played Battlefield Gothic for the first time last night. Fleet of 4 Imperium Cruisers against fleet of 4 Chaos cruisers, I was the Imperium. I got lucky and zeroed in on his flagship with my Nova cannons at 135cm, plus got lucky with damage rolls. Chaos flagship was crippled. I then closed while bombers finished off the flagship, and eventually split the Chaos fleet such that my forward weapons were firing at one ship while my port weapons got a full broadside on another, crippling both. Chaos resigned, Imperium went home with no damage. [30 Mar 99]

BattleField Gothic...

4 Choas Cruisers with junior commander against imperial fleet with decoy. I accomplished my subplot by getting the young and promising commander "blooded" and managed to disengage with two ships of my four, while destroying one enemy ship and the decoy. [29 Mar 99]

Heh. We (CEGA BG69) ran down a "renegade" venusian convoy. Turned out their Ryus aren't THAT advanced....

Jovian Chronicles is the greatest b/c the limitless possibilites in vehicle construction and the fast-playing, yet "realistic" tactical system. 3D vectored space combat, plus it interlocks perfectly w/surface and skirmish scale... [29 Mar 99]

It was a game of Battlefleet Gothic. I was playing Chaos against Imperials. On the second turn, I got one of his cruisers in the firing arcs of all my ships. Suffice to say, the rest of the battle was not pretty. [29 Mar 99]

Last Space Game I played was a Star Fleet Battles tournament deul, played FtF with someone in our local gaming group. I was flying ISC vs his Hydran, who conceded after 4 turns, mostly due to his ship being more damaged than mine. [29 Mar 99]

My last game was a round of silent death. Just two even forces fighting it out around a planet and a moon. No capitol ships (mainly because we don't have them) allowed, just fighters. The battle was quick since we had many torpodoes and very little point defence. I sent my cheetahs (4 of them) with beam weapons screaming past the enemy and using the planets gravity (now far behind the enemy) to make a quick turn around and finish them from behind.

While my battered heavier fighters engaged them head on and basically just kept them busy. The cheetahs ended the game disabling or destroying all the remaining enemy fighers. Luckily i targeted the more mobile craft with my torpedoes even though less hit, he targeted my heavy craft. [28 Mar 99]

Well.. my last game was a game of B5 Wars -- I was introducing my friends to the game, so it was a plain vanilla point against point game of Minbari vs. Humans.. It got a bit bogged down when they started using theif fighters (I let them work together.. less for each to handle and a better chance of good ideas :)

In any case.. It was a stretched out game, but it came to a not-so decisive victory for the Minbari - Our main cruiser was taken out, but then the smaller ships harassed the Human's bigger vessels into running away with heavy damage.. [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]

Just added Fleet battles rules to normal game. My NSL fleet had a very bad time vs. FSE with SMLs. [27 Mar 99]

Earth Aliance vs Non-Aligned
Babylon-5 Wars

Roughly 1850 pts each
Earth Alliance starting forces
2 Artemis frigates, 625pts apiece
1 Olympus corvette, 600pts

Non-Aligned
2 Brakiri Avoiki class Heavy Cruisers, 680pts apiece
1 Drazi sunhawk Battlecruiser, 500pts

Turn 1

EA
Artemis 1&2
went turtle with EW
speed 6

Olympus
went turtle with EW
speed 6

NA
Avoiki 1&2
went turtle with EW
Speed 12

Drazi Sunhawk
went turtle with EW
speed 10

Both fleets moved to engage. The Non-aligned player was trying to close the gap between the fleets. He didn't realise he had the range advantage with his Avoiki's -1/4 hexes with his Graviton beams

The EA player railguns on all three ships were -1/2 hexes and had to close. Turn 2 didn't see much more manuevering the Sunhawk swung out and slowed down. With the Avoikis continuing at great speed, no fire exchanged yet. EA just kept plugging on.

Turn 3

Avoikis sped past the the lighter Earth ships while the Drazi Sunhawk engaged the three EA ships. Artemis 1 didn't allocate any EW onto locking on to the sunhawk so didn't fire. Artemis 2 fired on the sunhawk and with rear weapons on Avoiki. Olympus fired on sunhawk, scoring a hit onto the C&C - killing the ship. More minor damage occured. Sunhawk fired on the Artemis, destroying 1 railgun and forward interceptor Avoiki recieved a destroyed rear Graviton pulsar and major damage to rear thruster

Turn 4

Avoikis flew off map. EA declined to pursue (couldn't catch them if I tried). NA decided next time would not close with EA ships and feels the Artemis rail frigates may be under-pointed. [27 Mar 99]

Two Kilgon D7's protecting an advance sensor station Vs 2 cloaked Romulan war birds (as per my full thrust conversion :)

I actually refefed more than played in this one as I was constructing rules for cloaked ships. 1 D7 would swing out in a wide orbit to attempt detection on the cloaked ships they KNEW were out there when suddenly a romulan uncloaked and fired upon the outermost D7! The D7 unleashed a furious series of blows to the Warbird, crippling it, as the inner D7 rushed to his buddies aid....

Straight into the fireing arc of the second Warbird as it uncloaked to strike the sensor station. At this point it was discovered that a full up D7 will NOT withstand the blow from a Plasma Torpedo, but it will stop the shot from hitting the station. The remaining D7 managed to get and hold a sensor lock on the Warbird and proceded to destroy it before it could get another shot off. [27 Mar 99]

My last game was a Star Fleet Battles game from our ongoing campaign, pitting a Klingon C7 and a Gorn CA+ against a Hydran CHC and IRQ. The terrain was a planet with two moons. On Turn one the forces approached rapidly with both sides doing about Speed 24. Towards the end of the turn, the two sides were in range, and firing began. The C7 dropped a scatterpack and launched some drones, while the CA+ launched two plasma torpedoes and tried to turn off behind the planet. The Hydran fighters were shredded by Starfish drones from the C7, but not before they and the fire from the Hydran ships had combined to do about 30 internals on the Gorn. The retaliatory Gorn/Klingon fire did about 30 internals to the IRQ. On turn 2, the Gorn swung around the planet, The Hydrans headed behind one moon long enough to break the lockon of the scatter pack, then HET'd and headed for the Gorn. The IRQ was hit by one plasma torpedo which severely weakend the #5 shield. The C7 pursued and fired another Alpha strike at the IRQ through the already weak #5 shield, doing about another 30 internals and slowing it to speed 10. The C7 also dropped another scatterpack. The CHC, however, managed to overrun and blow up the Gorn CA+, while taking about 15 internals anmd losing two shields, and part of a third to the fire of the Gorn plus drones from the C7. On turn 3, the CHC ran for a board edge, pursued by the C7, which managed to get a shot in through a down shield as the turn ended and do about 35 internals. At this point, Hydran reinforcements appeared in the form of a Mongol CM, so the C7 (with a weak shield) and outnumbered 2-1, turned and headed for its board edge, pursued by the Mongol. The CHC made best speed to escape. ON Turn 5, a Gorn HDD towing a PF appeared as reinforcements fopr the Gorn/Klingon side, and the C7 turned back into the fight. The Mongol was badly damaged in the resulting exchange while the Gron PF was destroyed. When a Klingon D5FK appeared ! as further reinforcements at the start of he next turn, the Hydrans withdrew.

Very hard choice. I play SFB regularly and think it is the best pure tactical game in many respects. I've played Full Thrust for some time and think it's and excellent fleet game. However, I just got hold of Battlefleet Gothic and the models are so outstanding, combined with the clever rules, and the campaign integration, that I felt I had to vote for Battlefleet Gothic. However, I will probably continue to play all three games as often as I can. [26 Mar 99]