Stumonster
Mongoose
Armed with the latest FAQ and Errata from Mongoose and our home brew ship sheets, my son and I decided to continue the saga of our damaged CA from the previous play test.
(FYI . . .You can find a report on our first play test here:
http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=49527&start=30 )
We wanted to have the damaged ship a factor, but not so huge a factor that it would unbalance the scenario or give a cheap victory to either side. This is what we came up with:
Federation Forces:
1- Command Cruiser - 205 points
1- New Heavy Cruiser - 190 points
1- Damaged CA (From previous play test) - 0 points
Romulan Forces:
1- KR Heavy Cruiser - 165 points
1- KRC Command Cruiser - 230 points
Victory Conditions: Side with the most victory points at the end of the scenario wins. (Standard victory points for damaged, crippled and disengaged ships apply. Hold your ground victory points do not apply.) In addition, the Federation player receives 50 points if the damaged CA leaves the board not crippled. The Romulan player receives 50 points if the damaged CA is destroyed. If the ship exits the board but is crippled, the Romulan player receives 25 points. Scenario ends when only one side has any non-crippled ships left on the board, or both side have only crippled ships on the board.
Special Rules: The damaged Federation CA may only fire weapons as defensive fire: No attacks on Romulan ships are allowed. Crit level 1 on the weapons is in place (All weapons are -1 to hit) and this may not be repaired during the game. (This is due to damage to the weapons from the previous scenario.) The ship starts with full shields and 22 superstructure. It moves in the compulsory movement phase of each turn. It may only move 6 inches per turn, and is allowed one turn as normal. It may only use the Take Evasive Action!, Close Blast Doors!, or Boost Energy to Shields! SA on any one turn. That SA is in effect during the following turn, since the ship is only activated in the compulsory movement part of the turn. The damaged CA may only leave from the opposite side of the board from where it entered.
Ships start at 36 inches range. Romulans elect to begin the game cloaked.
The damaged CA is played by the smaller ship. CC is the 2500
Turn 1 (Fed Initiative): The Federation ships drove quickly toward the Romulans, with the Romulans just heading straight ahead as well, but staying out of phaser 1 range so the Feds could not start taking pot shots this turn. Damaged CA uses Boost Energy to Shields! SA for the next turn and rolls for 9 points and moved forward.
Turn 2 (Romulan Initiative): The Federation ships were surprised to see the Romulan ships decloak. the ships closed again slightly, and phaser 1 beams filled the void. The tough forward shield arc of the former Klingon ships kept the damage to just a few shield and hull boxes on the KRC and the CC. The damaged CA again moves forward and boosted the shields with a nice roll of 11!
Turn 3 (Fed Initiative): The Federation ships both closed on the KRC, while the KR went around the 2 federation sheep dogs to go after the sheep. The Federation CC fired everything it had (center lined) at the KRC. The plasma-D's shot down the drones, and although 3 of 4 photon torpedoes and most of the phasers on the ship hit home, the heavy forward shields of the KRC soaked all of the damage up that struck them. Several hits penetrated the shields, however, and did significant damage to the hull. The KRC fired all of its bearing weapons at the Federation CC. The two Plasma-F's were fired as bolts, and the Plasma-S' as seekers. The phaser 3's on the Fed CC stopped 2 dice, but when the plasma explosions cleared, the CC had no shields left, and only 21 hull left and had 1 shield critical. The Fed NCA had no shots with the photons, but fired phasers and drones. Again the plasma-D's shot down the drones. Several hits leaked and did more damage to the hull, and one critical hit on the impulse drive. Lastly, the KR just fired phasers at the damaged Fed CA, scoring some leak damage to the hull and a few hull box hits. The Fed CA moved forward 6 and boosted shields by 7.
Head to Head pass . . CC vs. KRC
While the KR closes on the Damaged CA
Turn 4 (Rom Initiative): The Fed CC moved and turned to starboard while reloading the photon tubes. The KRC then moved closer to the damaged Fed CA. The Fed NCA moved backwards to bring the KRC into photon arc, and importantly stayed out of the KRC's forward shield arc. The Romulan KR closed with the damaged Fed CA again. The Romulan KR fired first, and though the Fed CA stopped 3 damage dice with defensive fire, the phasers and remaining plasma torpedo damage knocked down the shields and crippled the already damaged Fed CA. The Fed NCA Fired all weapons on the KRC. The phaser 2's took one drone AD down, and only the frantic use of the tractor beams saved the KRC from the other drone AD. The phaser 1's and photons left only 5 shield boxes left on the KRC. The KRC fired phasers at the Federation CC, scoring a few hits to the hull, One of which scored hits on the shields, taking the shields to critical two. The Crippled Fed CA moved forward 6 inches.
The KR cripples the damaged CA. Good thing the KRC is reloading!
Turn 5 (Federation Initiative): The Romulan ships began a turn around to get at the Federation CC and NCA, ignoring the crippled CA. The Federation ships also turned to face the Romulans. The Federation NCA fired first, and the phaser 1's succeded in crippling the KRC. (It only lost the Command 1 trait.) The KRC fired just its phaser 1's and did two hits: one to the Shield Grid of the CC, taking the Critical level of the shields to 3 and scoring another point of damage and a dilithium critical from the shield critical. With the KRC now crippled, the Romulan player decided to pull a fast one rather than shoot the KR. He contacted the Federation ships and told the Federation ships that if they let them leave the area, then they would spare the crippled Fed CA. An opposed crew roll went in favor of the Romulans, so the Federation agreed. The Romulans proceeded to cloak and disengage. While the Romulans scored 20 points for crippling the Fed CA, the crippled KRC gave the win to the Federation. (Since the Romulans fast talked the Feds, we did not give the Feds any points for the Romulans disengaging.)
End of the game positions
Our thoughts: Again, had a fun time playing the game. We forgot to time the game, but it was between 1 and 1.5 hours. The plasma-D defense ability is a great thing! The Romulan player realized that had his KR been in a position to follow up on the KRC hits on the Federation command cruiser, this would have been a totally different ball game. Next time, he vowed to keep his ships in closer formation and not split firepower. Lastly, we saw just how valuable it is to keep enemies in the forward shield arc if you are using Klingon/Klingon based ships.
Bottom line: Lots of fun, easy enough for my 12 year old son to play and enjoy. The errata helped a lot, as did the FAQ. Nice job, Mongoose!
(FYI . . .You can find a report on our first play test here:
http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=49527&start=30 )
We wanted to have the damaged ship a factor, but not so huge a factor that it would unbalance the scenario or give a cheap victory to either side. This is what we came up with:
Federation Forces:
1- Command Cruiser - 205 points
1- New Heavy Cruiser - 190 points
1- Damaged CA (From previous play test) - 0 points
Romulan Forces:
1- KR Heavy Cruiser - 165 points
1- KRC Command Cruiser - 230 points
Victory Conditions: Side with the most victory points at the end of the scenario wins. (Standard victory points for damaged, crippled and disengaged ships apply. Hold your ground victory points do not apply.) In addition, the Federation player receives 50 points if the damaged CA leaves the board not crippled. The Romulan player receives 50 points if the damaged CA is destroyed. If the ship exits the board but is crippled, the Romulan player receives 25 points. Scenario ends when only one side has any non-crippled ships left on the board, or both side have only crippled ships on the board.
Special Rules: The damaged Federation CA may only fire weapons as defensive fire: No attacks on Romulan ships are allowed. Crit level 1 on the weapons is in place (All weapons are -1 to hit) and this may not be repaired during the game. (This is due to damage to the weapons from the previous scenario.) The ship starts with full shields and 22 superstructure. It moves in the compulsory movement phase of each turn. It may only move 6 inches per turn, and is allowed one turn as normal. It may only use the Take Evasive Action!, Close Blast Doors!, or Boost Energy to Shields! SA on any one turn. That SA is in effect during the following turn, since the ship is only activated in the compulsory movement part of the turn. The damaged CA may only leave from the opposite side of the board from where it entered.
Ships start at 36 inches range. Romulans elect to begin the game cloaked.
The damaged CA is played by the smaller ship. CC is the 2500
Turn 1 (Fed Initiative): The Federation ships drove quickly toward the Romulans, with the Romulans just heading straight ahead as well, but staying out of phaser 1 range so the Feds could not start taking pot shots this turn. Damaged CA uses Boost Energy to Shields! SA for the next turn and rolls for 9 points and moved forward.
Turn 2 (Romulan Initiative): The Federation ships were surprised to see the Romulan ships decloak. the ships closed again slightly, and phaser 1 beams filled the void. The tough forward shield arc of the former Klingon ships kept the damage to just a few shield and hull boxes on the KRC and the CC. The damaged CA again moves forward and boosted the shields with a nice roll of 11!
Turn 3 (Fed Initiative): The Federation ships both closed on the KRC, while the KR went around the 2 federation sheep dogs to go after the sheep. The Federation CC fired everything it had (center lined) at the KRC. The plasma-D's shot down the drones, and although 3 of 4 photon torpedoes and most of the phasers on the ship hit home, the heavy forward shields of the KRC soaked all of the damage up that struck them. Several hits penetrated the shields, however, and did significant damage to the hull. The KRC fired all of its bearing weapons at the Federation CC. The two Plasma-F's were fired as bolts, and the Plasma-S' as seekers. The phaser 3's on the Fed CC stopped 2 dice, but when the plasma explosions cleared, the CC had no shields left, and only 21 hull left and had 1 shield critical. The Fed NCA had no shots with the photons, but fired phasers and drones. Again the plasma-D's shot down the drones. Several hits leaked and did more damage to the hull, and one critical hit on the impulse drive. Lastly, the KR just fired phasers at the damaged Fed CA, scoring some leak damage to the hull and a few hull box hits. The Fed CA moved forward 6 and boosted shields by 7.
Head to Head pass . . CC vs. KRC
While the KR closes on the Damaged CA
Turn 4 (Rom Initiative): The Fed CC moved and turned to starboard while reloading the photon tubes. The KRC then moved closer to the damaged Fed CA. The Fed NCA moved backwards to bring the KRC into photon arc, and importantly stayed out of the KRC's forward shield arc. The Romulan KR closed with the damaged Fed CA again. The Romulan KR fired first, and though the Fed CA stopped 3 damage dice with defensive fire, the phasers and remaining plasma torpedo damage knocked down the shields and crippled the already damaged Fed CA. The Fed NCA Fired all weapons on the KRC. The phaser 2's took one drone AD down, and only the frantic use of the tractor beams saved the KRC from the other drone AD. The phaser 1's and photons left only 5 shield boxes left on the KRC. The KRC fired phasers at the Federation CC, scoring a few hits to the hull, One of which scored hits on the shields, taking the shields to critical two. The Crippled Fed CA moved forward 6 inches.
The KR cripples the damaged CA. Good thing the KRC is reloading!
Turn 5 (Federation Initiative): The Romulan ships began a turn around to get at the Federation CC and NCA, ignoring the crippled CA. The Federation ships also turned to face the Romulans. The Federation NCA fired first, and the phaser 1's succeded in crippling the KRC. (It only lost the Command 1 trait.) The KRC fired just its phaser 1's and did two hits: one to the Shield Grid of the CC, taking the Critical level of the shields to 3 and scoring another point of damage and a dilithium critical from the shield critical. With the KRC now crippled, the Romulan player decided to pull a fast one rather than shoot the KR. He contacted the Federation ships and told the Federation ships that if they let them leave the area, then they would spare the crippled Fed CA. An opposed crew roll went in favor of the Romulans, so the Federation agreed. The Romulans proceeded to cloak and disengage. While the Romulans scored 20 points for crippling the Fed CA, the crippled KRC gave the win to the Federation. (Since the Romulans fast talked the Feds, we did not give the Feds any points for the Romulans disengaging.)
End of the game positions
Our thoughts: Again, had a fun time playing the game. We forgot to time the game, but it was between 1 and 1.5 hours. The plasma-D defense ability is a great thing! The Romulan player realized that had his KR been in a position to follow up on the KRC hits on the Federation command cruiser, this would have been a totally different ball game. Next time, he vowed to keep his ships in closer formation and not split firepower. Lastly, we saw just how valuable it is to keep enemies in the forward shield arc if you are using Klingon/Klingon based ships.
Bottom line: Lots of fun, easy enough for my 12 year old son to play and enjoy. The errata helped a lot, as did the FAQ. Nice job, Mongoose!
My son has big plans for a Romulan fleet once the minis are a bit easier to come by. I want to do Klingons and Federation personally.
