4 battle reports. 2xEA vs raiders, EA vs drazis&EAvscent

[tneva82]

Got trio of games during weekend. Maybe somebody even finds these interesting.

We agreed for 7 point raid with fleets choises. Annihilation was rolled for the scenario. I decided to take EA since I'm planning buying whole bunch of 3rd age models for myself anyway(3rd age EA obviously then being list I would choose my ships from...). I figured I would face Centauri's or maybe Narns. Or maybe opponent would have sense of humour to show me how it feels like to face ISA. Instead he suprised me with raider fleet! Holy cow! When he listed number of fighters he would need I groaned. I opted for too many thunderbolts! Bugger! Anyway fleets:

Earth Alliance:

EAS Kalevala - Omega class destroyer(2xstarfury, 2xthunderbolt)
EAS Ilmarinen - Nova(1xstarfury, 3xthunderbolt)
EAS Väinämöinen - Hyperion heavy cruiser(starfury)
EAS Kekkonen - Hyperion heavy cruiser(thunderbolt)
EAS Joukahainen - Artemis
EAS Karjala - Olympus
EAS Pietari - Olympus
EAS Sibelius - Hermes(starfury)
EAS Cajander - Hermes(starfury)

Okay so I'm crappy at naming ships so I copied notable names from Finland and it's history. Poor me

Raider fleet:

Battlewagon #1(4xDelta-V fighter)
Battlewagon #2(4xDelta-V fighter)
Battlewagon #3(4xDelta-V fighter)
Battlewagon #4(4xDelta-V fighter)
Strike Carrier #1(4xDelta-V fighter)
Strike Carrier #2(4xDelta-V fighter)
Strike Carrier #3(4xDelta-V fighter)
Strike Carrier #4(4xDelta-V fighter)
6xDelta-V fighter
4xDouble-V fighter
4xDouble-V fighter

Holy cow! 38 Delta-V fighters and 8 Double-V fighters! Sure invidually they are crappy but they outnumber my lonely fighters almost 4 to 1!!! Just Delta-V fighters outnumber them more than 3 to 1...Hey hoo I can't afford to waste my fighters. As for rest...Strike carriers will be mainly used for initiave sinks for battlewagons methinks. I need to start removing those capital ships fast before those fighters swarm over me.

Stellar debris:

Asteroids fields(6x6) at top-left(density 8) and bottom-middle(density 7), 12x12 asteroid field(density 10) at middle-right with 3" planet on left of it(we figured asteroid field is remnant of big planet and the planet is actually it's moon). Straight toward left and touch on bottom dust cloud.

Deployment:

As usual I lost the roll off(why I even bother concidering myself at advantage if I have higher initiave? I always fail anyway...). I deployed in 2 parts with asteroid field between(at bottom halve btw). On left side both hermeses, hyperion(Väinämöinen), nova and artemis. I put these here as this was wider area for long range missiles. 3 starfuries and thunderbolt were here as well. On right I had omega supported by hyperion(Kekkonen) and both olympuses. 2 starfuries were meagre fighter support there.

Raiders deployed 3 battlewagons(2, 3 and 4) on right and last one on far left supported by strike carrier. Between the 2 groups were remaining 3 strike carriers and fighter wings. Again slight gap between the 2 ships on left and middle group due to asteroid field.

Turn 1: EA won strategy roll.

Strike carrier #4 moved forward(half speed, same with every raider ship) and launched it's cargo of fighters. We traded ships back and fro until we were done. Only one battlewagon on right succeeded in scramble scramble order. Still with srike carriers with their carrier 4 trait meant most of raider fighters were off their ships. Distance between fleets still good 25(between fighter swarm and foremost ships, nova and omega).

Turn 2: EA won strategy roll.

I used hermeses and olympees as initiave sinks, he predictably used strike carriers(using all stop orders no less). Battlewagons did proceed toward me with good haste though and Kalevala and Kekkonen got boresights on battlewagons 3 and 4 respectably. Battlewagon 4 got boresight against Kalevala in return though...Nova managed scramble scramble and thus emptied his fighter hangars.

As for fighters...Well there was veritable SWARM between 2 asteroid fields ATM. I started to wish I had couple of Narn emine ships with me. Range between fighter swarm and my fleet 11".

Shooting. Hyperion opened up(hoping to disable laser of battlewagon before it opens up). Unfortunatly the two hits scored failed to cause even single critical hit. Kalevala suffered actually more of damage from the battlewagon than Kekkonen managed to do...Kalevala shot at battlewagon #3 and caused 2 hits, one which killed even more crew with critical hit(4/10).

Sibelius and Cajander opened up on Strike Carrier 3 with missiles(I decided I might start to remove initiave sinks and they don't have interceptors). 3 missiles hit. 1 was bulkhead and remaining 3 ALL caused criticals! 6-3, 5-1 and 4-6 later ship had suffered major damage and couldn't use weapons to add insult to injury. Albeit weapons weren't major threat anyway but everything counts...Olympuses fired as well but though all missiles hit 2 hit bulkheads and no crits were caused...Guess luck evens out.

Turn 3: Raiders win initiave! Darn double sixes.

Cajander takes sharp turn to left while Sibelius goes all stop. Artemis turns toward left as well. Nova however breaks off toward right. On right ships move forward steadily.

Both sides starts to get boresights toward each other. Battlewagon #1 boresights on artemis, ditto for Battlewagon #2. Battlewagons 3 and 4 boresight on omega. Meanwhile Väinämöinen boresights Battlewagon #1 while Kalevala and Kekkonen combined against BW4.

He wasn't close enough for his fighters yet so they just swarmed ahead. No such problem for me and thus seizing the initiave(in case he wins initiave next turn AGAIN!) 8 stands of fighters engaged his fighters in dogfights. On left starfury dispatched opponent with ease but thunderbolt next to it fell victim to double 6 vs double 2. Ouh! In center it went even worse as thunderbolt and 2 starfury flights were removed for gain of only one stand of delta's.

He opened up with BW1 against Joukahainen(the Artemis). Result was devastating as beam sliced up for 6 solid hits and 1 bulkhead hit while pulse cannons scored yet another solid hits. No critical hits but interceptors fell out of action. Artemis tried to repay a bit(before 2nd BW finish him off) but interceptors stopped railgun shots. BW4 then opened up on Omega with lasers and pulse cannon and Hyperion with twin particle arrays. Laser caused bulkhead hit while interceptors were drained off.

Omega retaliated(again there's 2nd BW preparing to shoot. Why take chances?). Pulse cannon got solid hit through and laser scored solid hit and 2 criticals. Alas all THOSE did was kill some more crew and cause no SA. Omega was subjected to another torrent of fire but just more damage and dead crew(including one from crew critical).

Kekkonen continued miserable day of BW4 and with hefty 5 hits from laser put battlewagon near skeleton crew already.

Final raider shooting was BW2 who shot at artemis. Needing just 2 solid hits from laser it scored only 1! Though that caused further crew loss from critical hit it was STILL alive with 2 DC and 1 crew...Unbelievable luck.

On right Karjala fired up against BW4 and put it within 1 point of damage from death and disabled engines. Made me think should I finish off it now with second olympus(Pietari) or shoot at second BW. In the end I decided to remove activation from him. Railgun did that nicely but alas, concidering number of deltas around it, didn't cause explosion.

In end phase strike carrier failed to repair weapon systems.

Turn 4: Raiders won initive(suprise suprise).

Strike carrier 3(the one without weapons) went all stop, Artemis moved forward. One battlewagon got borelock on Sibelius that was moving forward to bring AF weapons in range. Second BW got boresight toward rear of Nova that kept moving toward right. Hyperion on left(Väinämöinen) and second Hermes moved against strike carrier there. On center 2 other strike carriers moved forward to bring weapons to bear. On right battlewagon moved past my ships but so did omega move past it. Olympees AAF'ed past whole raider fleet.

Fighter movement was raider celebration since they could move at will. Starfuries and thunderbolts were engaged by swarm of fighters while Nova and Karjala(Olympus) were surrounded by fighters and Pietari(second olympus) was engaged by few stands who couldn't reach Karjala. Artemis got surrounded by 3 stands of Delta's. Ugh!

Result of dogfights: On left starfury got killed by 4 stands of delta's. In middle thunderbolt got killed by 2 stands. Next to it were two 1 to 1 combats between thunderbolt and delta-V. Further ahead 2 starfury squadrons were lost by raiders superior numbers. Raiders won one combat, EA second. On right delta-V, starfury and thunderbolt squadrons were lost.

Now all I had left for fighters was squadron of thunderbolts. They don't fight fair! Though for all fairness I was losing more 50-50 rolls than I should have. Ah well. That's dices.

As for fighter shooting. Artemis survived particle gun fire(heh heh). Nova however faced 4 squadrons of delta-V's and 4 squadrons of double-V's. This resulted in whopping 11 hits. 5 were intercepted by interceptors. Out of 6 hits that got through 1 was bulkhead hit and 2 were criticals. Luckily apart from lot more crew casualties(5-6 critical...) all it did was -2 speed. Well that nova is now officially slow

Karjala faced 6 flights of Delta-V's and 3 double-V. Delta's caused 5 hits while Double-V's caused 9 more. 11 got through interceptors. This resulted in 6 solid hits and critical hit which disabled SA's and killed yet more crew. Second olympus survived thanks to interceptors.

Strike carrier 4 on left finished off the troublesome Artemis with 4 solid pulse hits. Hyperion Väinämöinen then very nearly destroyed said ship with pulse, plasma and laser fire. Strike carrier wouldn't be moving soon either...Particle beams cleared nearby sky from 4 squadrons of delta's(yea!). Rear pulse cannons cleared another 2 squadrons leaving only one squadron left. Battlewagon #1 fired laser straight into rear of Nova causing 3 hits, 2 being critical...Appropriatly enough this caused ships movement go zero though from reactor explosion.

Sibelius found plenty of targets for particle beams. Finding double-V flights nearby forward particle guns concentrated there removing 2 squadrons. On left 2 squadrons of delta's exploded. Missiles streaked toward strike carrier 2 with both hitting but no criticals. Sibelius's career ended up shortly though as laser cannon from Battlewagon 2 blew it big time(6-6 critical hit for good measure! Don't settle for little now do you?). This engulfed final EA thunderbolt squadron as well as delta-V squadron. Nova got 2 more hits from pulse cannon as well.

Karjala fired railgun toward strike carrier 1 causing damage. Pulse cannons fired left, front and center removing 2 double-V squadrons and 3 squadrons of delta-V. Strike carrier 2 fired up at Nova taking it 1 short of crippled and with help of yet another crew killing critical(those are common) took it to skeleton crew. Atleast won't be firing all around then

Kalevala aimed heavy pulse cannons against strike carrier 1 while medium pulse cannons and particle guns concentrated on clearing sky of raider fighters. 2 more squadrons of delta-v's were removed while strike carrier suffered medium damage and -4 speed critical. Return fire caused little bit of damage to both olympuses and -4 speed critical for the other one.

Nova fired pulse cannons toward right(since it was skeletoned) taking out further 2 double-V's.

That for turn 4.

Turn 5: Raiders won initiave again(yup. My usual initiave rolling).

Cajander moved past the strike carrier 4 which then passed. Väinämöinen went all stop maintaining the boresight against said carrier. Battlewagon #1 moved toward immobilised nova(good target for boresighting ). Unsuprisingly said nova then passed turn. Same for weaponless strike carrier who went all stop.

Karjala started to turn around left which was responded by battlewagon 3 that got extra turn from SA. Ouh! They boresighted nova as well...Pietari followed her sister ship toward left.

Near immobilised strike carrier turned toward right but was obviously going to be in trouble as Karjala could boresight against it at will. Battlewagon 2 turned toward left and boresighted the Väinämöinen. This might hurt. Kekkonen returned the favour moving toward rear of said battlewagon.

Remaining raider fighters(16 delta-V's, 3 double-V's) surrounded Kekkonen and the poor old Nova. Nova suffered 3 hits(and 3 bulkheads...) from double-V's while delta's failed utterly. Hyperion suffered 4 hits that got through interceptors but that's it. 19 squadrons and 7 damage points...Not particulary good run for them and this was moment raider player needed good attack run more than ever.

BW2 fired first in an attempt to prevent Väinämöinen from finishing strike carrier. 5 hits was scored from laser but that resulted in just 1 critical and 2 bulkheads. Raider player chanted 4-6, 4-6 before rolling for critical but got instead 2-6. Engines blown wasn't exactly enough with boresight lock on...Secondary weapons damaged nova further but nothing major.

Nova, seeing 2 boresighting battlewagons, decided to shoot pulses first. 2 squadrons of deltas and 1 double-V's was blown again. Turkey shooting!

After pathetic attempt from strike carrier to damage omega(hah hah!) Kekkonen fired up pulse cannons against strike carrier(-4 critical), plasma cannons and particle beams against fighters(2 squadrons of delta-V's) and lasers against battlewagon(little bit of damage, that's it. Darn bulkhead hits and lack of crits).

Battlewagon 1 finally finished off the nova. And was bit too eager as nova exploded taking 3 squadrons of deltas and 1 squadron of double-V's with it!

Väinämöinen sliced through Strike carrier with ease. Unfortunatly explosion took Cajander halfway to destruction...Whoops! Darn hull 4 ships. 11 hits from laser alone...

Raider shooting was done so Omega cleared 4 squadrons of delta's with pulse cannons and particle beams(16 TL shots can't fail to get rid of SOMETHING). Laser dented strike carrier front of it nicely but not enough to cause serious damage. Only left arc was disabled and that's it. It was crippled though but didn't lose jump point.

Turn 6: Yup. You guessed it. Raiders won initiave.

Raiders began escaping. Every ship opened jump point and started preparing for escape. Fighter fights moved toward the area where strike carrier that was conviniently behind omega anyway was(safest area to escape).

Both olympuses, hermes and hyperion moved into positions where they could shoot at one strike carrier. Omega moved into position to shoot at other. Hyperions laser failed utterly against strike carrier but plasma cannon scored whopping 3 hits disabling damage control, causing weapons lose AD and crucially no SA! Jump point collapsed instantly. That carrier was officially "in trouble". Hermes and both olympuses aimed at one battlewagon but interceptors saved from all 3 missiles that hit.

Omega then fired at strike carrier and scored 8 hits. Those gave whopping 5 criticals! Another bridge hit that prevented SA's and reactors blew. Another strike carrier "in trouble".

Turn 7:

Fighters and battlewagons escaped. Omega blew strike carrier. Hyperion aimed aft lasers(thought yourself safe did you? Too bad I remembered that these things back rear lasers as well! ) against strike carrier that still had hopes of escape. 7 hits, 4 criticals. Not that criticals were needed since it only had 4 DC left...Plasma cannons finished off last strike carrier.

And that was it. What remained? For EA they had omega, both hyperions(I think this is first time no hyperions got destroyed here...), both olympuses and hermes. Raiders managed to salvage(not that it mattered much since EA won anyway...) 3 battlewagons, 5 delta-V squadrons and 1 double-V squadron. Raider activity here neutered for a while I would say! 5 capital ships and 40 squadrons of fighters destroyed is no small loss for raiders. Loss of hermes, artemis and nova + 12 squadrons of starfuries and thunderbolts combined isn't small loss for EA either...Though concidering how long it will take to recoup for raiders probably acceptable losses. Maybe.

Turn 3 was probably the big decider. It saw destruction of so many squadrons of deltas(especially double-V's) that after that raiders had lost big amount of firepower. Maybe he shouldn't have attacked so many ships at once but instead kept most in reserve and let big ships try to clear smaller ships further. He should(maybe) have also concentrated on smaller ships with big ships. Artemis and hermeses sooner out and it might have helped lot since those packed up hefty amount of AF weapons. Then go for nova with it's massive pulse cannon fire(even with dodge fighters are in trouble against that).

But I'm the one who got big bug to collect raider fleet after I get the EA in condition

 

[tneva82]

We also played smaller 3 point skirmish after first game with same fleets(to see if raiders could do better this time). I opted for olympus, 2 hermes and starfury+thunderbolt wings. He went for 2 strike carriers(he said he had concidered 1 and more fighters until he realised that if that one strike carrier goes he loses automaticly) supported by delta-V wing and double-V wing.

We rolled for space superiority scenario. Terrain was 3 6x6 asteroid fields scattered around with 5" planet with one moon. Raiders took north-east corner and EA the opposite. Raiders had to deploy first and went close to center of their deployment area near the planets gravity well. As for EA I put hermeses on both flanks and olympus+fighters in the center(thunderbolts behind).

Turn 1: EA wins initiave.

Both fleets approached each other with strike carriers launching off their cargo of fighters creating buffer zone of 14 delta-V squadrons. Starfuries were front of olympus while thunderbolts lagged slightly behind.

Turn 2: EA wins initiave.

Both fleets continue to approach. Strike carriers go for AAF. Hermeses slow down with the one on south entering gravity well. In fighter phase starfuries head slightly toward there as I realised it was tad too close for fighter swarm for comfort. Sure enough 6 squadrons of delta-V's broke off main force and reached the planet, ready to strike next turn.

Neither strike carriers nor olympus had anything in range of their main guns yet so it was time to shoot missiles fro, EA ships. Hermes on north hit with both but then to my horror rolled double 1's! Darn bulkhead hits! The one on south made up though as 2 hits resulted in double 6's! One resulted in lots of crew dead(6-5) which it could afford. Second one was 4-4! Nice. Even better olympus scored another 2 hits which resulted in speed 0 no SA critical on second strike carrier!

Turn 3: EA wins initiave.

Strike carriers moved slightly forward while hermeses held their position with all stop to load their missiles. Olympus manouvered between 2 strike carriers so the one with fluctuating weapons was on left arc and immobile one at front.

Starfuries engaged bunch of delta's ahead and though they were swarmed back by reinforcements all in all dogfights were EA favourable. Double-V's moved to fight against olympus while delta's approaching hermes moved into final staging area before they could make attack run next turn.

In dogfights 4 delta squadrons were destroyed for loss of 2 starfuries. Double-V squadrons caused 7 solid hits and critical hit that knocked out front weapons! Darn those small buggers.

In shooting phase olympus fired left pulse cannons and railgun against same strike carrier. Nothing spectacular happened, helped by railgun scoring only single hit...

Strike carrier with fluctating weapons managed to shoot at will and cleared out remaining 3 starfury squadrons and caused damage to olympus(ouh). Second strike carrier fired pulse cannons against olympus as well and incredibly hit with everything. Though interceptors stopped 2 it still left 6 hits. One which was -4 speed critical. Olympus was very nearly crippled already.

Not good.

Even less good news was second strike carrier regaining mobility.

Hmmmm...

Turn 4: Raiders win initiave(why am I not suprised?-)

Hermeses decided their help is needed badly enough to start moving forward. Strike carrier with weapon system damage turned to face one while second went all stop afterall to keep olympus in sight(even with AAF couldn't get past front arc) so instead olympus moved front of it and turned side against it(side weapons are still working).

As for fighters. Delta's engaged thunderbolts and in the end it was two dogfights between stand each and one where 2 delta squadrons combined against thunderbolt squadron. On south both double-V's and delta's there combined against hermes.

Dogfights resulted in 2 delta-V squadrons being destroyed and 1 thunderbolt squadron suffering same fate leaving 2 of both in that area.

Fighter shooting against hermes resulted in whopping 5 solid hits and THREE critical hits. Ouh! Apart from -1AD and -1 speed and little bit of extra dead crew nothing much came out though. Did get it into skeleton crew though.

As for rest of shooting. Strike carrier crippled olympus who in return caused major damage to strike carrier including -2 and -4 speed criticals as well as blowing up recently repaired engines for good...Guess the repair work wasn't that good afterall!

Second strike carrier blew one thunderbolt squadron with it's anti fighter weapons while pulse cannons failed to operate. Return fire from hermeses missiles failed to cause any criticals. Second hermes decided to try to clear out sky from those scary double-V's and with some stroke of luck(5AD's needing 5+...) removed all four squadrons.

In end phase both olympus and strike carrier got full control of it's weapon systems. But was it too late for EA?

Turn 5: EA won initiave.

Immobilised strike carrier passed. Olympus slipped into left arc of said ship to escape atleast the front pulse cannons. Second strike carrier moved toward hermes and started turn toward right. Not wishing to face those pulse cannons hermes promptly vacated area and into side of second hermes. Second hermes wasn't as lucky as skeleton crewed and crippled it couldn't avoid ending up front of immobilised strike carrier.

As for fighters. Thunderbolt squadron moved next to strike carrier about to blow hermes to bits in desperate bid to save it(who knows I might get 4-6 critical!). Unable to pursue faster fighters the pair of deltas moved into aft section of intact hermes while rest of deltas moved to flank of olympuses.

Unfortunatly for EA thunderbolts didn't do anything that would help the hermes. Pair of deltas in contrast managed to slow the hermes down with -2 speed critical! Other delta group took olympus 1 short of destruction(phew). It also got skeleton crewed so it was only able to shoot railgun which went against the strike carrier that thunderbolts had attacked. 6 damage points were caused which crippled(so "only" pulse cannon to worry about for near dead hermes...) and -2 speed critical. Ah well.

Strike carrier then blew both olympus and hermes apart with it's weapons. Darn it. Atleast second hermes survived both strike carriers attention.

With strike carrier regaining mobility we called it a game. Crushing loss for EA.

So what went wrong? Probably my overrelying on those hermeses and their missiles. Them being slow loading they were usefull only every second turn and that just wasn't enough. And I definetly underestimated what strike carriers could do now that they had to only worry about olympus...Ah well. Play and learn I suppose

 

[tneva82]

5 point raid. Call to arms scenario. This time fleets would be EA and drazi(purple drazi in case you are wondering! Chosen with time honoured drazi tradition of total random! ).

EA:

2xNova(2xstarfury, 2xthunderbolt)
Nova(4xthunderbolt)
2xArtemis
Olympus
2xHermes(starfuries)

Drazi:

Solarhawk
4xwarbird
3xSunhawk
2xDarkhawk

No stellar debris. EA lost deployment roll so had to deploy first. Novas went in center with hermeses behind. On their right were trio of smaller ships. Fighter swarm was left to novas.

Drazis put up darkhawks on extreme back facing small EA ships. Warbirds were left to novas with solarhawk and sunhawks behind them.

Turn 1: Drazi wins initiave.

Fleets head toward each other with all haste. I might have been bit TOO eager as leading nova ended up in sight of 3 warbirds and solarhawk! Ooops! Sunhawks moved even further left preparing to outflank EA column.

Shooting. On right missile drazi ships traded fire with olympus. First darkhawk didn't penetrate interceptors(rolling 2 1's to hit didn't help) while return missiles caused -1AD critical to second darkhawk which then in turn hit olympus 3 times. 2 were prevented by interceptors and only missile that hit failed to cause criticals.

Hermes hit solarhawk twice and caused -1AD critical hit to further annoy drazis. Didn't help that much leading nova that suffered hefty amount of damage from the tripple damage beam(nasty beam that). -1 speed critical would slow ship further.

Second hermes slowed down one warbird(too bad no more weapon hampering criticals ) with the missiles.

First warbird caused hefty dose of damage and -4 speed critical to the nova as well. That ship isn't moving anywhere in a hurry! Second warbird almost crippled nova and caused another -4 and no SA critical to boot! Final warbird caused just 1 hit but that was enough to cripple the nova(and take out jump engines as well).

That was nasty!

Turn 2: EA wins initiave.

Darkhawks and hermeses went all stop. Artemises and olympuses went ahead but were inch short of range for their weapons. Sunhawks moved to flank of EA column and solarhawk manouvered front of them so if fighters want to attack solarhawk they have to face particle beams of sunhawks(while sunhawks in turn were far enough that fighters couldn't get past them). Novas moved further forward drazi's while warbirds combined against the nova on right(the crippled one being the one on left). Fighter swarms moved against 3 warbirds though some invariably ended up in particle beams of warbirds.

Unfortunatly fighter runs(despite total of 9 squadrons attacking) combined in total of ONE damage hit being caused...3 more hits were scored but they went against bulkheads. Yup yup.

Shooting started with middle nova whose frontal pulses nearly skeleton crewed solarhawk(and caused no SA crit to boot). Side pulse cannons were less impressive against warbird(darned hull 6).

Warbird 2 fired at nova causing total of 8 points of damage(plus -1 speed critical). Particle beams removed thunderbolt squadron as well.

Crippled nova shot against warbird causing medium damage and -2 speed critical while front pulse cannons skeleton crewed solarhawk! Nasty beam that ship posses but no defences whatsoever.

Warbird 4 then fired at nova and blew out weapon systems out! Damage wasn't that bad but disabling weapon systems HURT! Oh dear oh dear.

Warbird 1 continued the pummeling and blew out engines as well! Speed 0, can't fire? That's one useless nova! And that's just with particle repeater. Cannon caused 2 more criticals though atleast those "just" killed more crew and caused -1 critical.

Final warbird crippled nova and caused -2 critical for good measure.

Nova managed to repair something, that being the no SA taken last turn. I concidered taking -4 speed but there was second so why bother...Also darkhawk removed -1AD critical.

Turn 3: Drazi wins initiave.

Messy turn. Hermeses kept their position preparing to fire missiles again. 2 Sunhawks moved to shoot at badly mauled nova from last turn while third sunhawk and solarhawk moved to shoot at one hermes. 2 warbirds also moved to shoot at the immobile nova while 2 warbirds moved to attack second hermes.

On right EA ships moved to bring darkhawks in range who then suddenly moved PAST them...Whoops! Forgot that possibility!

All in all EA was in biiiig trouble.

In fighter phase things got better as 5 thunderbolt and 3 starfury squadrons decrewed one of the warbirds attacking immobilised nova.

In shooting phase solarhawk blew out hermes with ease(11 solid hits from tripple damage weapon...). It also barely avoided being caught in the explosion.

Nova that was crippled in turn 1 had CAF'ed at the beginning of turn so lasers raked sunhawk in front of it crippling, skeleton crewing and disabling weapons for good measure! Left arc lasers decrewed solarhawk with ease. Right arc lasers caused nice damage(too bad no crits) to warbird on there. Nice! Don't mess with nova's!

Warbird 1(the one nova raked with fire) decided to shoot before second nova behind it would shoot. Nearly destroyed the nova and caused weapon fluctuation crit for good measure with particle cannon. Repeater blaster then promptly caused reactor implosion which blew out nova in huge explosion. Warbird suffered huge damage from it(6-6 critical didn't help...) and blew out though barely failed to cause explosion as well(which caused drazi player curse big time concidering number of fighters nearby). 3 squadrons of fighters were also swept by.

That was something!

Intact nova then, finding his right arc suddenly empty of targets, settled on raking sunhawk in it's rear with lasers for nice 5 points of damage.

On south hermes found itself facing pair of warbirds. One of them nearly took out hermes before it even got chance to fire while missiles barely scratched second warbird. Second warbird knocked hermes out with ease.

On north darkhawks managed to nearly take out the very slow nova as well as cause -1, -2, -4 speed crits(three -4 crits on that btw...). Then one darkhawk blew out with concentrated railgun fire. Blew out BIG TIME! One artemis nearly crippled and skeleton crewed. Olympus halfway dead and -1AD critical. Second artemis crippled and skeleton crewed as well as no left arc weapons. Second darkhawk very nearly dead.

Don't stay near low hull low DC ships...

No repairing happened.

Turn 4: EA wins initiave.

Suddenly things had turned against drazi player. Drazi fleet started to turn around as did EA fleet. Fighters surrounded one of the sunhawks big time blowing it in the shooting. Second sunhawk found itself barely in range of both novas with predictable results.

Nova repaired one of the three -4 speed crits. Olympus got rid of -1AD.

Turn 5: Drazi wins initiave.

Fleets continue their turning manouver. Fighters ruined drazi players hope to take nova out with darkhawk(nova was within 1 point from destruction...) by taking it out first. One warbird got to boresight artemis. Second boresighted near dead nova with 2 squadrons of thunderbolts and starfuries intercepting. Fighters did NOTHING with predictable result of destruction of nova. Artemis was blown apart by particle cannon(darn darkhawk blowing up...).

Situation:

2 near intact warbirds and 1 sunhawk vs nova, artemis and olympus plus whole bucketload of fighters.

Turn 6: Drazi wins initiave.

Warbirds target artemis and olympus while nova got warbirds in front and right arc. Fighters swept against one warbird and sunhawk.

Warbird survived with minimal damage but sunhawk was nearly decrewed with 5-3 and 5-4 criticals. Only ONE crew point was left...

In ship shooting warbird blew out artemis with ease and then nova barely scratched said warbird. These birds are tough! Second warbird dented olympus nicely though suffered 5-5 critical in return. This was less than good news for drazi player since those warbirds were so important...

Turn 7: Drazi wins initiave.

One warbird(the one with biggest crew loss) couldn't shoot anything this turn with boresight weapons so instead used come about to make sharp turn. Second warbird boresighted olympus. Sunhawk AAF'ed away from fighters though albeit this took into arc of nova. But fighters were left behind. 4 squadrons on right made attack run against warbird aiming against olympus causing 4 points of damage. This didn't save the olympus that fell victim of particle cannon and repeater.

Sunhawk was unsuprisingly taken out by nova

Turn 8: Drazi wins initiave(what's with EA initiave?).

Nova turned around to bring side arc weapons where warbirds would come. Warbirds boresighted nova and then had fighters surrounding in. Bunch of them hadn't speed to get past warbird but figuring I need to protect that nova went in anyway risking AF fire. They managed to cripple the warbird and remove damage control for good. Huzah! Risk paid off!

Warbird then caused 4 points of damage and was nearly taken out by nova in return. Second warbird caused further 5 hits which caused -1 speed critical as well as reactor implosion. Ouh!

Turn 9: Drazi wins the initiave.

Nova kept turning around and both warbirds boresighted. One was destroyed by trio of starfury squadrons before it could shoot however. Second warbird was decrewed by the swarm of thunderbolts and starfuries around it.

EA won. With nearly crippled and skeleton crewed nova remaining. Hardly massacre victory...Actually wether this is victory is debatable at best.

The drazi's certainly suprised me with their efficiency. They might have only boresight weapons but those pack quite a punch! Good thing I managed to take out solarhawk out before it could fire against nova. That might actually have been decisive that it didn't manage to do that. When it could shoot again it couldn't turn sharply enough to get boresight on nova so instead went against hermes. Maybe decisive mistake for drazis as though hermes blew out nicely that was quite a lot of firepower wasted...

Fighters were also darn usefull, helped a lot by drazis lacking any fighters! Maybe guardhawk or two instead of sunhawks would have been better choise.

As for EA the novas came to their own when they got into middle of enemy formation as the obscene amount of dices I could roll from them started to add up. Especially nasty when they could CAF and hull 4 targets were nearby. And of course 4 squadrons of fighters were plain handy. Should have brought 5 novas :lol:

 

[CZuschlag]

Just a slight note from your very thorough battle reports (and thank you for that):

When you CAF you can only fire at one target, total. It seems that, against the Drazi in fight 3, turn 3, you had one Nova under CAF with lasers against Sunhawks (no problem there..) also firing on the Solarhawk and a Warbird (and here is the problem). When you CAF, you can only nominate one target, and that target MUST be declared at the time the special order is issued.

Just a note.

And thank you fro the detailed reports! Keep that part up.

 

[tneva82]

When you CAF, you can only nominate one target, and that target MUST be declared at the time the special order is issued.

*smash head against walls repeatedly*

Stupid stupid stupid STUPID me!

Well that's what you get when rulebooks are in Finland! (which is why we also avoid some ships like fleet carriers :lol: Neither of us remember how the fighter recycle works. And why we avoid narns like hell. Emines? What emines?).

Thanks for the correction.

 

[Target]

Another note, missles can't hit bulkheads they are precise. They get +1 to the roll, 1-4 is normal hit & 5-6 is crit. Great reports mate, wish i was organised enough to to do BR's. We take pictures but thats about it.

 

[tneva82]

Another note, missles can't hit bulkheads they are precise. They get +1 to the roll, 1-4 is normal hit & 5-6 is crit.

*smash head into wall some more*

And I'm supposed to be the ACTA expert from the two of us Albeit based on the handfull of games I got to play on vassal before going to england :wink:

Ah well.

Wish I had rulebooks with me but there's only so much you can fit into bag when you travel in air plane. And neither is going to buy any rulebooks with the 2nd edition looming ahead(ratio price/games played is not particulary good ATM :lol: ).

As for reports. Being very, very fast handwriter like I am helps. Of course my handwriting is more akin to cryptology so afterwards pretty much only I can read what I wrote. Speed vs quality I suppose

 

[tneva82]

5 point raid again. EA 3rd age vs Centauri. Fleets:

EA:

2 pulse omegas(all thunderbolts)
Nova(all thunderbolts)

Top heavy but let's see how pair of pulse omegas(which don't have boresight weapons) do. I'm startting to run out of units from 3rd age EA that I HAVEN'T tested yet(since I can't use fleet carriers yet) so good time to try Last time I saw pulse omega used it wasn't that impressive, interceptors soaking out most of their firepower, but maybe pair of them could a) overcome interceptors b) cause enough hits after that to make it worthwhile.

Centauri:

Primus
Sulust
Centurion
2 vorchan

For terrain we ended up with 2 asteroid fields effectively cutting battlefield into 3 sections, left, center, right. Centauri's actually botched their deployment roll(ACTA scenario btw) so deployed into center section with primus and sulust taking the lead(though still not as far as deployment zone allows) with centurion behind and vorchans even further behind. EA went to right side as I decided to use asteroid field to cover against those laser beams of doom.

Turn 1: Centauri wins initiave.

Entire EA fleet AAF'ed to close the distance ASAP. Sulust managed to come about so made sharp 90 degree turn and thus was waiting for EA to come around the asteroid fields to shoot. Vorchans moved toward center of field.

Turn 2: EA wins initiave.

Sulust holds. Nova AAF's just to the edge of asteroid field so next turn it would emerge. Omega #1 slowed down and turned around launching thunderbolt squadron. Vorchan #1 managed come about so moved so that asteroid field was between it and EA ships while looking at where EA ships would emerge. Second vorchan couldn't do same so moved behind asteroid belt. Centurion and primus held their positions as well while second omega joined first.

Turn 3: Centauri wins initiave.

Omega #2 came around asteroid belt and straight into range to primus! Vorchan #2 came around asteroid belt emerging behind EA fleet. First omega came next to second with nova joining them. Centurion moved at half speed preparing to fire at nova while primus CAF'ed against said nova. Sulust continued to hold position. Vorchans came around and combined against nova as well(that nova feels like being in trouble!). Sentris found themselves utterly outnumbered by thunderbolts and got swatted out of the sky rightaway. 2 squadrons made attack run against vorchan and caused slight damage.

Shooting started with primus firing against nova. Hefty amount of damage was caused and bridge was blown to pieces as well. Nova opted to shoot while it could with vorchan being in front and rear. Mild damage to front vorchan and slightly more(especially crew due to crew critical) to rear. Then centurion fired at Nova. Twin arrays depleted interceptors and caused slight damage and matter cannons crippled the capital ship instantly. 2 -2 speed critical hits were caused aswell.

Omega #1 fired it's pulse cannons all around. Left arc pulse cannons could shoot at first vorchan destroying it to drifting hulk. Front pulse cannons shot at primus depleting interceptors and causing medium damage and reactor implosion taking out many more crew. Oh and -2 speed critical.

Vorchan almost took out nova and then second omega nearly crippled&skeleton crewed vorchan as well and causing nice amount of damage to primus. After this round primus had suffered 17/27 damage. Not too shabby for pulse cannons.

Sulust split fire with lasers(legal since EA ships were nearby) and blew nova and missed omega utterly.

Turn 4: Centauri wins initiave.

Omega moved into flank of primus(whose captain started to mutter something about stupid ship designers who forgot major weaponry on other sectors than front arc.). Sulust started to move and CAF'ed against said pulse omega. Second omega moved beside it and avoided front arc of primus. Primus then managed come about test(Bugger. Here went my plan! NOW I have primus buggering my rear section...) and got the second omega into front arc. Gulp!

Centurion came about as well(darn!) and was in rear of omega as well. Vorchan halted in space.

Thunderbolts split so that half went against sulus(3 damage there) and vorchan(nearly taking it out).

Shooting. Sulust opened up against pulse omega causing medium damage and -2 speed crit. Said omega then fired up causing medium damage against sulust, one hit intercepted by interceptors against primus and medium damage against centurion except for speed 0 no SA crit! Boom!

Primus fired twin arrays against both omegas(who were in 2 different arc) causing slight damage to the one sulust had fired and 1 point of damage to the second. Lasers opened up on second(since it hadn't shot yet and thus if weapon crit happens...) and though scoring massive 7 hits(hitting with 5 out of 6 is not fair!) didn't cause criticals. Hefty chunk fell from ship though.

Sulust suffered slight damage from omega but centurion suffered positively MASSIVE damage suffering total of 6 solid hits and 4 critical hits to boot! Engines blew out second time and two -2 speed crits as well. Add to that worst possible crew critical and only thing that kept ship alive was the fact these were not from double/tripple damage weapon! As it was ship got crippled right there...The centurion got bit of payback raking omega from behind but with lasers missing it wasn't that much damage.

Turn 5: Centauri wins the initiave.

Second omega succesfully comes about. First omega simply heads forward as Vorchan turns away. Sulust had "some" motivation to move from the position as if he held position with SA he would be in front arc of both omegas So needless to say it moved away. Annoyingly it too came about succesfully so headed south and straight out of rear arc of omega. Bummer. And just to bugger me off further primus succeeded in come about as well!

Efficient centauri's...

Fighters continued to harash vorchan and this time also centurion. Vorchan was destroyed(in case you wonder why he kept holding vorchan there in death trap he said he wanted to keep fighters busy and not allow omega to simply finish it off). Centurion was finished off as well.

Reqular shooting phase less well though as primus fired lasers and twin arrays at damaged omega. Lasers nearly crippled it in one stroke and twin arrays finished the job. Jump engines went offline as well! ARGH!

Things were icky so I did what I could. Concentrated on primus hoping for lucky break(otherwise that primus tailing me is going to finish me off!). Crippled omega took out interceptors. And then the second omega fired rear pulses. Only 2 hits! Ugh! Except one was critical hit. And it caused weapon fluctuations! Huzah!

Sulust escaped pulses without problems thanks to interceptors.

Turn 6: Centauri wins initiave.

Crippled omega turns to move away from primus(and to keep rear pulse cannons toward it). Sulust starts to turn around and yup. Come about succesfull. Second omega turns tail for primus as well and turns toward sulust. Now sulust is in side arc of both omegas and rear arc of both omegas.

10 squadrons of thunderbolts fell against primus. 7 hits were scored. 3 were stopped by interceptors. 3 solid hits. Critical hit. 6-3! What arc would be disabled? If front then centauri's were officially screwed...Nah no such luck for EA today. Only left arc was disabled.

Shooting. We rolled for weapon fluctiating...Twin arrays at front and rear(we assumed you roll for these per arc) failed to fire. Bugger. I had obviously hoped for reserve result. The firepower made drifting hulk out of omega. Right arc twin arrays failed to remove dodging thunderbolts.

Second omega fired rear pulses against primus and got 3 hits. One of them was critical! I then groaned as it was only second -2 speed critical for that. 2 points from crippled and 5 from skeleton crewed.

Omega fixed speed critical and that was repair phase.

Turn 7: EA wins initiave!

Primus tails the omega which moved further away. Sulust CAF'ed the primus. Fighters continued to harash the primus that was a) crippled b) skeleton crewed c) suffered -1AD d) engines were blown apart.

Fighters were winning me a game. Very B5-esque actually!

Omega failed to do much(just 1 point of damage) with rear pulses though. Side pulses got 1 hit that killed some more crew with critical but that's it. Primus failed to activate lasers(hoping to destroy omega before fighters win the game). Sulust also failed to do very little for pretty intact omega(even after laser damage it still had less than 20 DC caused...).

Turn 8: Centauri wins initiave.

Omega moved and turned rear pulses toward sulust that pursued with CAF order. Fighters simply remained there and blew primus for good. Nearly blew it to their face as well.

Omega and sulust traded fire. Nothing major for either side.

Turn 9: Centauri wins initiave.

Sulust went AAF! Guess he didn't want to face that fighter swarm as game was coming to an end...Though this put it in front of omega but despite blowing out sulusts weapons it was clear I could not get sulust before the end(without attrocious luck with criticals).

Turn 10: Centauri wins initiave.

Which it turns out I had. It almost escaped but reactor implosion decrewed the sulust.

Game end.

Only one omega and 10 fighters survived. Omega had 28 DC and 50 crew left so would have taken atleast 2 rounds from primus to take it near critical levels.

Lessons learned:

-Vorchans should probably have waited a bit. Making attack run against 2 pulse omegas and nova was risky at best.
-Centauri's lack of fighter support paid them dearly. Maybe 1 FAP should have been used on sentri flights or maybe balwarin instead of centurion.
-Pulse omega isn't that impressive until you get enemies on multiple arcs, preferably front, rear and one side atleast Pair of them with enemies at side and rear or front and things get lot better. That's a LOT of dices rolled...

 

[Locutus9956]

Good writeups though I must admit I didnt read all the way

Was going to comment on missiles and preciceness meaning you cant get bulkheads but seems someone got there first

One thing I will advise if you DO play raiders though: Battlewagons and as many league ships as youre allowed. The smaller raider ships are just not worth their cost

 

[CZuschlag]

Just one further note -- and I wish the rules really did permit it your way, not the book's way -- the game would be much more interesting all way 'round:

Call to Arms scenario has zero terrain.

I wish it did, though.

(Off topic, I know): 2nd Ed plea? Would also mitigate the beams of doom phenomenon.

 

[Grimbart_Kriegsaxt]

Cool battle reports, i like them very much.
But for me as a noob it would be cool if you could attach some graphics or pictures as well. I always feel lost while reading its hard to imagine where which ship is and which fires on whom .

Best Regards
Markus

 

[tneva82]

Just one further note -- and I wish the rules really did permit it your way, not the book's way -- the game would be much more interesting all way 'round:

Call to Arms scenario has zero terrain.

*krhm*This clash takes place in deep space and so no stellar debris or planets are required unless both players agree to their use.*krhm*

That straight from the tournament pack So it's not REQUIRED but since BOTH of us AGREED for terrain we could use it. So we didn't need to even change the scenario(which neither of us is affraid to do anyway if it fits us). Scenario allows terrain anyway.

Have to admit first time I read call to arms scenario I thought as well this would be fought without terrain but recently when I reread it I noticed the exact wording. Hurah!

 

[CZuschlag]

Huzzah indeed! I see it right there, too -- never read it closely enough. I got my request without waiting for a new condition. Color me a happy dude.

Well caught.

 

[Davesaint]

Just one further note -- and I wish the rules really did permit it your way, not the book's way -- the game would be much more interesting all way 'round:

Call to Arms scenario has zero terrain.

*krhm*This clash takes place in deep space and so no stellar debris or planets are required unless both players agree to their use.*krhm*

That straight from the tournament pack So it's not REQUIRED but since BOTH of us AGREED for terrain we could use it. So we didn't need to even change the scenario(which neither of us is affraid to do anyway if it fits us). Scenario allows terrain anyway.

Have to admit first time I read call to arms scenario I thought as well this would be fought without terrain but recently when I reread it I noticed the exact wording. Hurah!

That's the difference in the scenario from the tournament pack and SFOS. In SFOS there is no terrain. Since Armageddon came out, it has invalidated the tournament pack.

Dave

 

[Target]

When we play we don't use the books scenario's.
We move on from the back of the board with no fighters deployed. We don't have a deploymeny zone as such. Who ever lose intiative moves a ship/squadron on first then next person and so on. Roll a d6, 6 is terrain, roll for each quarter. 1pt for every 4 can jump in so you need 8 for 2pts.
It doesn't really matter as long as both/ everyone agree's. If we want to do a ambush we would use the book or doing a campaign.

 

[tneva82]

That's the difference in the scenario from the tournament pack and SFOS. In SFOS there is no terrain. Since Armageddon came out, it has invalidated the tournament pack.

Well since we don't have SFOS guess which version we'll be using :lol:

Alternatively we'll just rename tournament pack scenario and play it.

Game without terrain is boring.

Rule #1 in miniature gaming: Anything is fair play as long as both player agrees to it. That overrides even the rulebook of invidual games.