In a warmup for our coming campaign, me, Hiffano, took control of the EA crusade fleet, and Jeff took the Vree for a spin.
Fleets
EA-Crusade: Marathon, 2 Chronos, 2 Hermes, Furies
Vree: 2 Xill, 3 Xarr, 1 Vaarka, 1 Xorr, Tzymms
The Xarrs and the Hermes were squadroned, and the EA won initiative, forcing the Vree to set up first. the Vree set up in the middle, the 2 Xill holding the centre, the Xorr on their right flank, the Xarrs on the left, with the Vaarka and fighters at the back.
The EA set up on their own left, angled towards the centre, the Marathon flanked on the left by the hermes, on the right by the Chronos, and the fighters hanging around at the back.
Turn 1, the EA won initiative and asked the vree to move. the Xarr squadron moved up slowly, and a Chronos moved to meet them. The vree Xorr was the next to move, moving forward jut in front of it's own lines, again a Chronos moved forward just behind it's comrade. Next, the vree slipped up. moving a Xill forward, the Marathon pouncd into action, lining up a boresight. the Vaarka moved into a flanking position on the marathon, whilst the 2 hermes concentrated all fire on the Xil. lastly the remaining xill moved forward. Due to range considerations, only the first Xill, Vaarka, Hermes and marathon had firing solutions. Ready for the spectaular, the Marathon opened up on the Xill. Needing 3's to hit, a roll of 1, 1, 2, 2 brough much frustration. However he Vaarka in the side are was in range of a laser/pulse aray set to laser. And it did the business, whilst only causing 4 damage, it took the Turret weapons of line with a handy drit. The vaarka had just lost any chance to fire. The xill returned fore on the chronos, getting 2 damage past the interceptors, nothing more. The Hermes, being the only ships left to fire, ripped off a salvo of 4 missiles on the Xill, 3 hit, one was rerolled, and not a single crit, the xill took 4 points of damage.
Turn 2, and the EA won again. The vree moved their Xarr to flank the Chronos positions, the 1st Chornos moved forward into the thick of the vree. The Vaarka, with it's main weapons offline was moved backwards to give it a chance at survival, and the hope of repair. The next chronos again moved forward alongside it's brother, creating overlapping fire arcs, The damaged Xill moved to engage the two chronos, and the Hemes began a sweep into the opposite flank of the Xarr. the Xorr moved back from the Fray, but a swift moving and maneuvreable Marathon moved between the Xill and Xorr boresighting both ships for and aft, in quuite a smiyg fashion, also getting the Vaarka in side arc range. the remaining xill moved up the Xorrs, the EA were surrounded, the Vree were in overlappign multiple firearcs! this turn, the Tzymm moved into action, the EA ships close enoughto engage, the furies countered engagint them in dogfights. The smugness of the dual boresight faded when the EA failed to spot the scout, and needing 3's on the aft boresight to hit the Xill, the beam rolled a 2, 3, and on the second roll, rolled a 2, 1 hit, 3 damage. the aft guns did little, however the other Xill, hit by a pulse array took.... a weapons offline crit... more turreys gone! Jubilation for the EA. A flurry of blows then from both sides came thick and fast, a -4 speed crit on a chronos, was offset by more shredding of the de-turreted xill, and some Xarrs took some niggly damage, dosging most of it. a final salvo from a Chronos, and the de-turreted xill exploded, catching fighters and a chronos in the blast.
At the end, the Vree managed to repair the Vaarka, more curses from the EA.
Turn 3 the Vree won initiative, the speed 4 chronos trundled forward, the Xarr now splitting the squadron, moved one ship up in the flank. the second chronos muved up again converging fire arcs the two chornos moved up to engage the Xarr up close and personal, and the Xorr moved back,and with only the marathon left, the Marathon moved right up to engage, almost touching the vree then swarmed around the Chronos with their remaining ships. The vree opened fire, saturating the interceptoors on the chronos with the remaining xill, only a few shots got through, including a speed zero crit. The Marathon opened up first, and lo, burned through stealth. with 4 dice of SAP triple damage beam against a hull 4, great things were expected... after rolling, 1,1, 1, 2, and then a 2 again (seriously, it was so depressing) a 3-3 damage hit the Xorr. the pulse array fared better and ripped through the ship, the criticals inflicted weren't even important at this stage, as the anti fighter turret even had a shot, and bang, the Xorr exploded, buts whats this, 2 hits on the Marathon from the explosion, and, oh, a 6-1 crit, no special actions. bugger! the aft guns on the marathon however took down the Xill to a nice crippled state. the Vaarka with it's repaired weapons took a shot at the marathon, getting plenty of hits, the interceptor dice wound up.. needing 2's, 2, 3, 1, 1 ah well 2 left on 3's... 2, 1... amazing, and another 8 damage to the Marathon, and a speed zero crit, I suddenly had 1 chronos and 2 hermes in working order . The Chronos took it's shots, it's arcs full of goodies, one Xarr went down, then the Vaarka was blown up, and then, and this is cruscial, the Xill with only a couple of hits remaing, took 4 hits 2 of which were crits. the 4 damage took it to minus 2 anyway, then lo, a 6-5 crit, on a dead ship, arse... then lo, ANOTHEr 6-5 crit on the same dead, already about to explode ship...how annoying, a hermes exploded in sympathy the remaining hermes took some blasts but hung on. suddenly the Vree had 2 Xarrs left, the Chronos was in line for a medal for it's fine work!
Turn 4, a lesser player might have given up, but not our vree, with only 2 Xarrs, he was ready to take the fight to the EA. It wasn't plain sailing, with 2 speed zero ships, the ea had to rely on the one remaining chronos, the Hermes needing 2 turns to get back around into the fight. the EA using the dead weights of stationary shipsVree were forced to actual movement and both Xarrs moved in for a high profile marathon kill. The problem was, the Xarrs just couldn't get out of range of anything if they wanted to attack. the marathon fired first lamely watching everything get dodged, the first xarr took it's shot and took the marathon to half damaged, some very innefective interceptors again! the Chronos then powered up, firing everything it could at the as yet to fire Xarr. It was over long before the firing stopped, as the xarr exploded in a fireball of doom, catching his fellow in the blast.
I was actually hugely confident in this fight, I knew that I would probably be outnumbered so plumped for a heavy hitter (yeah right) in a Marathon. the Vree player is new to the saucers, having been a Vorlon, so he needed to learn his fleet. Although I won, as I expected, it would have been a costly campaign battle, with numerous criticals and a wad of damage on the Marathon. The Vree took a few turns before realising that weak weapons should fired first to deplete interceptors (otherwise it could have been worse for me) also, the crucial turret criticals quite possibly won me the game. My faith in my interceptors and heavy beam, were my downfall as I rolled amazingly badly on anything from the Marathon. for the third EA game in succession, i thank the lrd for the Chronos! it may have a low amount of damage, but it's one useful little ship.
I may sound mean not telling jeff how to use weak guns on interceptors, but he knows his gaming, and I would have told him if he hadn't figured it out before we started our campaign, learn by doing
I won't go into a fight with the vree so cockily again! and i am sure Jeff will be much more tactical now he is learning his strengths and weaknesses. I may have to consider a couple of hyperions instead of the marathon
Fleets
EA-Crusade: Marathon, 2 Chronos, 2 Hermes, Furies
Vree: 2 Xill, 3 Xarr, 1 Vaarka, 1 Xorr, Tzymms
The Xarrs and the Hermes were squadroned, and the EA won initiative, forcing the Vree to set up first. the Vree set up in the middle, the 2 Xill holding the centre, the Xorr on their right flank, the Xarrs on the left, with the Vaarka and fighters at the back.
The EA set up on their own left, angled towards the centre, the Marathon flanked on the left by the hermes, on the right by the Chronos, and the fighters hanging around at the back.
Turn 1, the EA won initiative and asked the vree to move. the Xarr squadron moved up slowly, and a Chronos moved to meet them. The vree Xorr was the next to move, moving forward jut in front of it's own lines, again a Chronos moved forward just behind it's comrade. Next, the vree slipped up. moving a Xill forward, the Marathon pouncd into action, lining up a boresight. the Vaarka moved into a flanking position on the marathon, whilst the 2 hermes concentrated all fire on the Xil. lastly the remaining xill moved forward. Due to range considerations, only the first Xill, Vaarka, Hermes and marathon had firing solutions. Ready for the spectaular, the Marathon opened up on the Xill. Needing 3's to hit, a roll of 1, 1, 2, 2 brough much frustration. However he Vaarka in the side are was in range of a laser/pulse aray set to laser. And it did the business, whilst only causing 4 damage, it took the Turret weapons of line with a handy drit. The vaarka had just lost any chance to fire. The xill returned fore on the chronos, getting 2 damage past the interceptors, nothing more. The Hermes, being the only ships left to fire, ripped off a salvo of 4 missiles on the Xill, 3 hit, one was rerolled, and not a single crit, the xill took 4 points of damage.
Turn 2, and the EA won again. The vree moved their Xarr to flank the Chronos positions, the 1st Chornos moved forward into the thick of the vree. The Vaarka, with it's main weapons offline was moved backwards to give it a chance at survival, and the hope of repair. The next chronos again moved forward alongside it's brother, creating overlapping fire arcs, The damaged Xill moved to engage the two chronos, and the Hemes began a sweep into the opposite flank of the Xarr. the Xorr moved back from the Fray, but a swift moving and maneuvreable Marathon moved between the Xill and Xorr boresighting both ships for and aft, in quuite a smiyg fashion, also getting the Vaarka in side arc range. the remaining xill moved up the Xorrs, the EA were surrounded, the Vree were in overlappign multiple firearcs! this turn, the Tzymm moved into action, the EA ships close enoughto engage, the furies countered engagint them in dogfights. The smugness of the dual boresight faded when the EA failed to spot the scout, and needing 3's on the aft boresight to hit the Xill, the beam rolled a 2, 3, and on the second roll, rolled a 2, 1 hit, 3 damage. the aft guns did little, however the other Xill, hit by a pulse array took.... a weapons offline crit... more turreys gone! Jubilation for the EA. A flurry of blows then from both sides came thick and fast, a -4 speed crit on a chronos, was offset by more shredding of the de-turreted xill, and some Xarrs took some niggly damage, dosging most of it. a final salvo from a Chronos, and the de-turreted xill exploded, catching fighters and a chronos in the blast.
At the end, the Vree managed to repair the Vaarka, more curses from the EA.
Turn 3 the Vree won initiative, the speed 4 chronos trundled forward, the Xarr now splitting the squadron, moved one ship up in the flank. the second chronos muved up again converging fire arcs the two chornos moved up to engage the Xarr up close and personal, and the Xorr moved back,and with only the marathon left, the Marathon moved right up to engage, almost touching the vree then swarmed around the Chronos with their remaining ships. The vree opened fire, saturating the interceptoors on the chronos with the remaining xill, only a few shots got through, including a speed zero crit. The Marathon opened up first, and lo, burned through stealth. with 4 dice of SAP triple damage beam against a hull 4, great things were expected... after rolling, 1,1, 1, 2, and then a 2 again (seriously, it was so depressing) a 3-3 damage hit the Xorr. the pulse array fared better and ripped through the ship, the criticals inflicted weren't even important at this stage, as the anti fighter turret even had a shot, and bang, the Xorr exploded, buts whats this, 2 hits on the Marathon from the explosion, and, oh, a 6-1 crit, no special actions. bugger! the aft guns on the marathon however took down the Xill to a nice crippled state. the Vaarka with it's repaired weapons took a shot at the marathon, getting plenty of hits, the interceptor dice wound up.. needing 2's, 2, 3, 1, 1 ah well 2 left on 3's... 2, 1... amazing, and another 8 damage to the Marathon, and a speed zero crit, I suddenly had 1 chronos and 2 hermes in working order . The Chronos took it's shots, it's arcs full of goodies, one Xarr went down, then the Vaarka was blown up, and then, and this is cruscial, the Xill with only a couple of hits remaing, took 4 hits 2 of which were crits. the 4 damage took it to minus 2 anyway, then lo, a 6-5 crit, on a dead ship, arse... then lo, ANOTHEr 6-5 crit on the same dead, already about to explode ship...how annoying, a hermes exploded in sympathy the remaining hermes took some blasts but hung on. suddenly the Vree had 2 Xarrs left, the Chronos was in line for a medal for it's fine work!
Turn 4, a lesser player might have given up, but not our vree, with only 2 Xarrs, he was ready to take the fight to the EA. It wasn't plain sailing, with 2 speed zero ships, the ea had to rely on the one remaining chronos, the Hermes needing 2 turns to get back around into the fight. the EA using the dead weights of stationary shipsVree were forced to actual movement and both Xarrs moved in for a high profile marathon kill. The problem was, the Xarrs just couldn't get out of range of anything if they wanted to attack. the marathon fired first lamely watching everything get dodged, the first xarr took it's shot and took the marathon to half damaged, some very innefective interceptors again! the Chronos then powered up, firing everything it could at the as yet to fire Xarr. It was over long before the firing stopped, as the xarr exploded in a fireball of doom, catching his fellow in the blast.
I was actually hugely confident in this fight, I knew that I would probably be outnumbered so plumped for a heavy hitter (yeah right) in a Marathon. the Vree player is new to the saucers, having been a Vorlon, so he needed to learn his fleet. Although I won, as I expected, it would have been a costly campaign battle, with numerous criticals and a wad of damage on the Marathon. The Vree took a few turns before realising that weak weapons should fired first to deplete interceptors (otherwise it could have been worse for me) also, the crucial turret criticals quite possibly won me the game. My faith in my interceptors and heavy beam, were my downfall as I rolled amazingly badly on anything from the Marathon. for the third EA game in succession, i thank the lrd for the Chronos! it may have a low amount of damage, but it's one useful little ship.
I may sound mean not telling jeff how to use weak guns on interceptors, but he knows his gaming, and I would have told him if he hadn't figured it out before we started our campaign, learn by doing
I won't go into a fight with the vree so cockily again! and i am sure Jeff will be much more tactical now he is learning his strengths and weaknesses. I may have to consider a couple of hyperions instead of the marathon
