Hello All,
I recently bought the starter set and started playing with one of my friends, and we are having a great time with the game. I already order the revised box set (should arrive soon), and have had some rules questions that are being answered in the forums rules section.
Here is a quick After Action Report of the game so far, I am playing the Narn, and my friend is playing the Centauri.
War of Retribution
S1: Opening Moves
Fleets:
Centauri: x1 Altarian Destroyer
Narn: x2 G’Karith Patrol Cruisers (GPC #1 and GPC #2)
Game Length: Until victory conditions are met.
Victory Conditions: Fight to the death!
Overview:
Each side started 24” away from each other, and moved at flank speed directly at each other. The Altarian strikes the GPC #1 first and caused a Reactor Gas Leak, and then hit GPC#2 and got a Thrusters Damage critical. The two G’Kariths strike back but did minimal damage.
The two sides continue to close range and one of the G’Kariths gets a lucky shot and takes down the destroyers weapons with a Catastrophic Ammunition Explosion, and both Narn captains rejoice with glee as the destroyer in unable to fire back.
The Centauri Captain, no fool he, then went on for two turns of evasive maneuvers (won initiative 3 times in a row!) while the G’Kariths continued to fire at him, incredibly missing most of the time, and doing minor damage when they did hit. By the end of the second turn his damage control crew got his weapons back on line, and on turn three he hit GPC #1 for mayor damage with his infernal Matter Cannon and caused a Fire to break out. The two G’Kariths tried to flank him, but he continued to maneuver in such a way to keep his weapons on them and in short order blasted both of them to flaming space debris. His destroyer barely took damage and returned to their base with a happy crew and with much rejoicing (or so I think).
Winner: Centauri Overwhelming Victory
Lessen Learned: Don’t engage an Altarian Destroyer with less then 3:1 odds! (grin)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S2: Giant Killers
Fleets:
Centauri: x6 Vorchan Warships
Narn: x2 G’Quan Heavy Cruisers
Game Length: Until victory conditions are met.
Victory Conditions: Fight to the death!
Overview:
The two sides started 36” away, and closed to engage each other. The Vorchans maintained a fast moving wall formation, while the G’Quans slowly advanced line abreast. The G’Quans opened fire with half of their energy mines, and did nothing more then waste some good mines. They tried to line up their enemies to hit them with their Heavy Laser Canons, but for 99% of the fight they never had a chance to use them as the damn Vorchans where just to fast to target and never stayed still enough for a clean shot.
The Vorchans flew in perfect formation and divided into two groups of three, raced past then G’Quans while hitting them with Plasma Accelerator fire and somehow dodging 90% of the heavy cruisers return fire. They bypassed the cruisers and turned around to circle and flank them, while the slow ponderous cruisers turned around to meet them.
What ensured was over five rounds of ships circling each other trying to get a shot, with the Centauri warships displaying an amazing ability to fly in formation, stay out of the cruisers front fire arcs and more then 9” away (thus safe from return fire), AND hit with incredible accurate plasma fire time and time again racking up one critical after the other.
Things where looking bad for the Narns until the Vorchans got to close to the G’Quans while performing another strafing run and got finally started to get hit. While the G’Quans where taking a beating and suffering from many critical hits, the shear amount of damage and crew loss they could absorb (compared to the Vorchans) started to tell.
Within two rounds it was all over as the heavy cruisers where able to bring their weapons to bear and started damaging the enemy with greater force. G’Quan #1 destroyed one ship out right with energy mines and direct fire, and destroyed two more with particle and pulse fire using its port and aft arc weapons. G’Quan #2 was finally able to get its Heavy Laser Canon into play (after 8+ turns!) and shot one Vorchan straight threw (did something like 20+ damage because I rolled one dice 5! times to hit with the beam special ability), caused it to explode and take out the Vorchan behind it, and was able to cripple the third. The last crippled Vorchan tried to escape but got hit by a cross fire of particle, pulse and energy mine fire from both G’Quans.
For 2/3rds of the battle it looked like the Vorchans had the upper hand and where using their fast speed, flanking maneuvers, superior range and powerful weapons to take the G’Quans slowly apart, but the heavy cruises held their own under withering fire, worked together to support each other with covering fire, and kept maneuvering to keep the enemy in their front firing arcs. It was only till the Centauri got to confident and got to close that the Narns where able to put their weapons to use and do some damage. The battle took like 3 hours and around ten turns to complete, but it was a tense fight to the very end.
Winner: Narns, but with serious damage.
G’Quan #1 ended the battle with speed 2”, 19/55 damage, 42/70 crew, an Engineering Hit critical (since T3, he was unable to repair a single critical hit during the whole battle), a Thruster Damage critical, and Fuel System Ruptured critical.
G’Quan #2 ended the battle with speed 4”, 32/55 damage, 36/70 crew, a Power Relay Destroyed (repaired within one turn), a Reactor Gas Leak, Multiple Fires, and a Capacitors Damaged critical.
Now I don’t know anything about campaign play, but I am sure that kind of damage should have put those two heavy cruisers in a repair yard for a long time…..
Lessons Learned: The G’Quans primary weapon is next to useless against fast moving enemy ships, and they should never go into battle without some kind of fast escort ships to protect their flanks and aft arcs.
I can’t wait till two more weekends when we get to play scenario #3!
George
I recently bought the starter set and started playing with one of my friends, and we are having a great time with the game. I already order the revised box set (should arrive soon), and have had some rules questions that are being answered in the forums rules section.
Here is a quick After Action Report of the game so far, I am playing the Narn, and my friend is playing the Centauri.
War of Retribution
S1: Opening Moves
Fleets:
Centauri: x1 Altarian Destroyer
Narn: x2 G’Karith Patrol Cruisers (GPC #1 and GPC #2)
Game Length: Until victory conditions are met.
Victory Conditions: Fight to the death!
Overview:
Each side started 24” away from each other, and moved at flank speed directly at each other. The Altarian strikes the GPC #1 first and caused a Reactor Gas Leak, and then hit GPC#2 and got a Thrusters Damage critical. The two G’Kariths strike back but did minimal damage.
The two sides continue to close range and one of the G’Kariths gets a lucky shot and takes down the destroyers weapons with a Catastrophic Ammunition Explosion, and both Narn captains rejoice with glee as the destroyer in unable to fire back.
The Centauri Captain, no fool he, then went on for two turns of evasive maneuvers (won initiative 3 times in a row!) while the G’Kariths continued to fire at him, incredibly missing most of the time, and doing minor damage when they did hit. By the end of the second turn his damage control crew got his weapons back on line, and on turn three he hit GPC #1 for mayor damage with his infernal Matter Cannon and caused a Fire to break out. The two G’Kariths tried to flank him, but he continued to maneuver in such a way to keep his weapons on them and in short order blasted both of them to flaming space debris. His destroyer barely took damage and returned to their base with a happy crew and with much rejoicing (or so I think).
Winner: Centauri Overwhelming Victory
Lessen Learned: Don’t engage an Altarian Destroyer with less then 3:1 odds! (grin)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S2: Giant Killers
Fleets:
Centauri: x6 Vorchan Warships
Narn: x2 G’Quan Heavy Cruisers
Game Length: Until victory conditions are met.
Victory Conditions: Fight to the death!
Overview:
The two sides started 36” away, and closed to engage each other. The Vorchans maintained a fast moving wall formation, while the G’Quans slowly advanced line abreast. The G’Quans opened fire with half of their energy mines, and did nothing more then waste some good mines. They tried to line up their enemies to hit them with their Heavy Laser Canons, but for 99% of the fight they never had a chance to use them as the damn Vorchans where just to fast to target and never stayed still enough for a clean shot.
The Vorchans flew in perfect formation and divided into two groups of three, raced past then G’Quans while hitting them with Plasma Accelerator fire and somehow dodging 90% of the heavy cruisers return fire. They bypassed the cruisers and turned around to circle and flank them, while the slow ponderous cruisers turned around to meet them.
What ensured was over five rounds of ships circling each other trying to get a shot, with the Centauri warships displaying an amazing ability to fly in formation, stay out of the cruisers front fire arcs and more then 9” away (thus safe from return fire), AND hit with incredible accurate plasma fire time and time again racking up one critical after the other.
Things where looking bad for the Narns until the Vorchans got to close to the G’Quans while performing another strafing run and got finally started to get hit. While the G’Quans where taking a beating and suffering from many critical hits, the shear amount of damage and crew loss they could absorb (compared to the Vorchans) started to tell.
Within two rounds it was all over as the heavy cruisers where able to bring their weapons to bear and started damaging the enemy with greater force. G’Quan #1 destroyed one ship out right with energy mines and direct fire, and destroyed two more with particle and pulse fire using its port and aft arc weapons. G’Quan #2 was finally able to get its Heavy Laser Canon into play (after 8+ turns!) and shot one Vorchan straight threw (did something like 20+ damage because I rolled one dice 5! times to hit with the beam special ability), caused it to explode and take out the Vorchan behind it, and was able to cripple the third. The last crippled Vorchan tried to escape but got hit by a cross fire of particle, pulse and energy mine fire from both G’Quans.
For 2/3rds of the battle it looked like the Vorchans had the upper hand and where using their fast speed, flanking maneuvers, superior range and powerful weapons to take the G’Quans slowly apart, but the heavy cruises held their own under withering fire, worked together to support each other with covering fire, and kept maneuvering to keep the enemy in their front firing arcs. It was only till the Centauri got to confident and got to close that the Narns where able to put their weapons to use and do some damage. The battle took like 3 hours and around ten turns to complete, but it was a tense fight to the very end.
Winner: Narns, but with serious damage.
G’Quan #1 ended the battle with speed 2”, 19/55 damage, 42/70 crew, an Engineering Hit critical (since T3, he was unable to repair a single critical hit during the whole battle), a Thruster Damage critical, and Fuel System Ruptured critical.
G’Quan #2 ended the battle with speed 4”, 32/55 damage, 36/70 crew, a Power Relay Destroyed (repaired within one turn), a Reactor Gas Leak, Multiple Fires, and a Capacitors Damaged critical.
Now I don’t know anything about campaign play, but I am sure that kind of damage should have put those two heavy cruisers in a repair yard for a long time…..
Lessons Learned: The G’Quans primary weapon is next to useless against fast moving enemy ships, and they should never go into battle without some kind of fast escort ships to protect their flanks and aft arcs.
I can’t wait till two more weekends when we get to play scenario #3!
George
