Battle for Planet Houston

Burger

Cosmic Mongoose
Ha! As you can see, I have escaped from the Phantom Zone (some loser with a crystal opened a "back door" - whats with that?! Anyway my 2-D Minbari ships of doom were calling out for revenge against General Hash's evil Shadows. So who was I to stand in their way - well actually it wasn't the same ones, they had gotten some variants ;)

This time a Sharoos, 2x Shantavi, a Tigara and a Leshath. We rolled for scenery, getting a few less this time. A small planet, we searched for a suitable template, and eventually settled on a Rich Tea biscuit. It was named Planet Houston due to its strange surface.
sDSC02219.jpg


Also an asteroid field, we couldn't find any asteroid models so decided to use broken bits of Rich Tea biscuit (are you spotting a theme here?). Here is Hash, "adjusting the density" of the asteroid field. As you can see from the number of biscuit pieces, it is density 8.
sDSC02220.jpg


OK, on with the fight! The wussy Shadows started off hiding behind the asteroid field, so we'll skip that bit and move on to turn 2. The Minbari loomed ominously (well as ominously as you can do with paper ships). The Shadows decided that entering the asteroids would be a good idea - one of the scouts losing most of his shields in the process.
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A bit of firing actually happened here, the big bad Shadow Ship was adrift and lost its weapons. Result!

The scouts, with cries of "noooooooooooooo", charged forwards.
sDSC02222.jpg

One Shantavi died. The big Shadow Ship died.

Then the Shadows got their formation together, mostly getting into my weak arcs and picking on the Leshath due to its stealth-busting ability.
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Leshath went boom, big style. Luckily the rest of the shooting went my way, the remaining Shadow Ship getting pinned by the Shantavi. The fighters kept pecking away at the Scouts but their stealth kept saving them (cue lots of "Shadow Scout dances" from Hash).

Shadows tried to play arcs but the pinned Shadow Ship couldn't do anything to avoid the Shantavi.
sDSC02224.jpg

The Shadow Ship exploded horribly, after a 6-6 crit by the Shantavi it went to -56 damage. The scouts did take down the Shantavi though, with cries of "you killed my father, prepare to die!"

The scouts then hunted down the Tigara, and son killed it. It was just an undamaged Sharoos versus 2 Shadow Scouts, then. War vs 2x Raid - surely I had a good chance?
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Well I kept failing stealth rolls. With me needing 4's and Hash needing 2's and having 2 chances with redirected fire too, the game was not going my way at all. The Sharoos started to get hurt. But only 2 turns remained, I managed to stay alive (but crippled and skeleton crewed!).

Final result: 40-34 VPs to me! General Hash does not always win after all, and there is someone on this planet to challenge him!
 
8)

Always good to see a battle report. Glad to see you got your revenge (ish)!

I think I recognise the region of space. My fleet has from time to time found itself in orbit around Planet Chocolate Digestive (I couldn't find the templates either). I assume the planet killer turned up shortly afterwards?

Good going, and good choice with the Sharoos. Nothing annoys shadows and vree like 30" heavy weapons in every single arc....


The Shadow Ship exploded horribly, after a 6-6 crit by the Shantavi it went to -56 damage.
It may not (in theory) be instant death anymore, but the Critical Hit of the Beast (6-6-6) with advanced neutron lasers will still turn just about anything to jam.....still, that's taking 'overkill' to a whole new level....
 
Cool battle report dude. I almost had you there though - the two Shadow Ships didn't last long due to the horrendous Beam rolls from the Shantavi's but the Scout more than justified their points value between them taking out one Shantavi, Tiagra, and skeleton crewing (nearly crippling the Sharoos) (they would maybe have killed it too if I had another couple of turns ;))

Lesson for me is to take more Scouts - their combination of Shields, Stealth and Dodge makes 'em MUCH tougher than they were in 1e. Plus the accurate weapon is useful for putting those ISA players in their place ;)

EDIT: Shadow fighters are only ever useful as roadbumps for Nials...
 
Yeah, the 5/5 shields are really annoying. Tigara was doing virtually no damage to them, and thats when it passed the stealth!
 
"Thats no planet its a space....hang on, no its a rich tea digestive biscuit"

Industrial light and magic Death star model number 0.001
 
M1ndr1d3rs said:
Where do you guys get that space plate anyway?

Thanks dude!

The "space plate" we use as an asteroid template is just an image we printed onto A4 card and then cut off the corners.

The table was painted by Reaverman (and Burger) and is just black poster paint on MDF with the starfields and nebula painted on using an airbrush.

We do have some *really* cool asteroid terrain that Reaverman put together but we lent it to the Game Shop in Aldershot for the recent Sentient Rabbits tourney.
 
That table looks just amazing! I gotta beef up my own "black MDF with white droplets sprayed on it" -table somehow.
I guess that starfield was created by using the airbrush with too low psi? Or was it too high?

Speaking of "cool looking asteroids", I made these out of slag from the local steel mill. Just sprayed them black and drybrushed. I think they look pretty good.
http://galleria.sotavasara.net/kuva/13/

And here's a planet I made from a BIG lightbulb. Used tissue paper and PVA glue to create the 3d effect. I know the mountains are a bit exaggerated, but it's meant to be a topographic representation of the planet, floating in the holograpic tactical display on the battleship bridge..
http://galleria.sotavasara.net/kuva/233/
 
For the star effect without an airbrush take a piece of cardboard and a aerosol can of paint and spray over the edge of the cardboard and when you get a flop on the edges flick it. If it doesn't come out well the first time take a damp washcloth and try again.
 
rakath said:
Speaking of "cool looking asteroids", I made these out of slag from the local steel mill. Just sprayed them black and drybrushed. I think they look pretty good.
http://galleria.sotavasara.net/kuva/13/

Those "rocks" are awesome dude!
 
rakath said:
I guess that starfield was created by using the airbrush with too low psi? Or was it too high?
Nah, a bit less high tech than that. Brush with bristles cut off to about 1cm, flicked.
 
rakath said:
Speaking of "cool looking asteroids", I made these out of slag from the local steel mill. Just sprayed them black and drybrushed. I think they look pretty good.

They are awesome. They must be pretty heavy, being made out of slag. Or is it quite porous?
 
I'm not sure if "slag" is the correct term in english. It's some sort of byproduct of manufacturing stainless steel. Black, very porous, heavy stone. Might have some metal in it, but I believe it's mostly rock.

Getting them to stand on a base was pretty easy. You could always find a suitable hole to stick your BBQ skewer in.

The "slag" was reused in the late 80's as a filler in roadsides, and basing material for the yards of public buildings. So it's still quite freely available, you don't have to sneak around the steel mill.
 
Maybe its something with a high carbon content they use for the steel. I was going to use scoria, but in the end decided it was too porous. The holes were too uniform, unlike the slag.

I like the Catbari. :D

@Burger or Hash. Are you guys planning a tiebreaker? To see once and for all who gains control of the Biscuit System, and who gets banished to the phantom zone for all time. (or until someone lets off a nuke in the wrong place)
 
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