Grand Finale
Last night, we played out the final battle of our current campaign. The campaign had been customised by our very own Greg Smith to only last 5 Turns; this was to accommodate one of our regulars heading back to university in a couple of weeks.
The finale would involve all 6 players – in two teams of 3 – each bringing 3pts of Battle PL from their respective fleet’s remaining ships…
We had the forces of Order – Greg Smith (Gaim), Simon Chandler (Minbari) and myself (League) vs. the foul minions of Chaos – Charles Lister (Centauri) and Paul Eyles (Drakh), led by their dark master Ben Harris (Shadows).
The scenario was one of our favourites – “First to Die Loses” :twisted: (Call to Arms)
Setup
With so many different Initiative scores in play, we devised a simple scheme – similar to the method employed at the last Mongoose tourney – both teams started at 0, but this could be modified by ships with the Command trait. As Charles had brought a Balvarin along as part of his fleet (as he often does) the Chaos init went to +1. Unfortunately, as my League fleet included a pair of Pak’Mara Ikortas, Order’s init was reduced to -3 :roll: .
We lost the setup roll, so one of our players would have to setup first, then a Chaos player, then one of us etc…
As there was a couple of asteroid fields on the left hand side of the table, near to our deployment zone, Simon (aka Chandler) and his Minbari were chosen to setup first. Everyone knew exactly what Simon would do in his 1st turn – his squadron of 3 Tinashi would head straight into the field to gain the additional Stealth boost.
Paul (aka Clanger) was the first Chaos player to setup, he had a Drakh Warship and Ma’Cu carrier (with 4 light raiders on board) and he positioned these on the extreme left flank of Chaos’ deployment zone… well away from the Minbari “beam team”.
Greg’s Gaim were next for us; he had a Sluuka Queen ship, a Skrunnka Assault ship and two Sataaka Gunships. These were all setup slightly left of centre, the Queen nearest to the table edge (the extreme range of the E-Mines affords the Gaim that luxury).
Charles (aka Da Boss) and his Centauri were next, he had a Primus, Liati, Balvarin, Maximus and Demos, all were placed, loosely, to the left of the Chaos centre.
My rag-tag group of League ships – a Vree Xill, 2 Vaarl, 2 Xixx, the 2 Pak Ikortas, a Brakiri Haltona and a Gaim Shaakak – were setup in and around Greg’s bugs.
Lastly, Ben (aka Diesel) placed his two Scouts among the Centauri ships, but had his Young Shadow ship setup behind a dust cloud on the Chaos teams extreme right… virtually opposite Simon’s Minbari… this caused Simon to immediately begin bemoaning his fate at the hands of the Shadows… and we hadn’t even started yet!
Turn 1
We never won initiative the entire game (stupid Pak’Mara) and so would always move first and fire second. Simon surprised no-one at all by moving the trio of Tinashis into the asteroid field, the lumbering Gaim ships (my Sataaka and Greg’s Queen) inched forward and “Scramble Scrambled” many more fighters and breaching pods onto the board. The Drakh War cruiser headed for the enemy, the Ma’Cu moved down the side and spewed forth the first pair of raiders, the Centauri’s Primus and Maximus came forward and “Closed Blast Doors”. My Vree ships split up, Vaarls and Xill heading left, the two Xixx Torpedo Saucers heading right.
Ben’s Scouts also headed in opposite directions, one towards the Young Ship, the other making a b-line for the Chaos left flank.
Greg’s remaining Gaim, along with my two Ikortas and the Haltona, accepted the challenge of the Primus, and moved towards the centre… “Where the metal meets the meat!”
The last ship to move was the Shadow Ship, and it sped right through the dust cloud and into range of the Tinashis… Simon continued to moan like a little girl about how the Shadows were going to kill his precious Tinashis
!
Firing was light in this turn, the Shadow ship failed to see its target (Simon still cried) the return fire by the Minbari was less than inspiring, the Shadow Ship had its shields removed and took about a dozen points of damage. Simon had about 6 or 7 hits on the Young Ship after the shields had been depleted, but failed to score a single critical – we put this down to the forces of Chaos controlling the random element of dice! :shock:
Turn 2
All of my ships would split down to individuals this turn; we needed to keep the Tinashi team together as our “big-hitter” and we hoped that the Minbari’s gunners would get better…fast!
My Vaarls ambled over to where the Minbari were hiding, as I thought they might be needed for support soon. My Torpedo saucers used their SM move to slide over to the right, as it seemed the Shadow Scout and the Demos were looking to flank our forces.
My and Greg’s Gaim ships continued their inexorable crawl towards the enemy, backed up by the Ikortas and the Haltona. The Xill saucer was positioned so that it could bolster where needed.
The Primus and the Maximus, with the Drakh Warship not far behind, also headed for the “Flash Point”.
We had just enough ships on the board that Ben would have to move his Shadow Ship before Simon would have to move the boneheads.
Ben opted to move his Warship behind a second asteroid field, where the ship would soon repair… Simon started measuring ranges and turns in an effort to get the Shadow ship under his guns, but when one of his allies (me) pointed out that if he ignored the Shadow ship and headed out and to the right, he would be able to bring the Primus into beam range and would not be shot at in return! I feel that the “not shot at” part of my argument swayed the young admiral, and in a display of true Minbari courage, he diverted his attention to the Primus – which, for some reason, caused Charles to gesture rather rudely at me! :lol:
There was a lot more firing this turn, and the Centauri forces took the brunt of it. Charles insisted that the Primus be allowed to fire first, as he was sure that it would not get another chance. The Primus battered the Gaim Skrunnka, but it survived the onslaught. The Liati was chosen for Greg’s E-Mine assault and he dropped 18 AD on top of the Centauri Battle ship. With “Close Blast Doors” saving a few points of damage and crew, the Liati still took about half of its totals. Simon’s Tinashis lit up the Primus, but poor rolling, and a lack of criticals, meant that the resilient battleship was still in – relatively – good shape.
Paul had the Drakh Warship continue the attack on the Skrunnka, but despite being crippled and having 3 or 4 weapons crits, the Gaim ship soldiered on.
The Demos took a few torpedoes from the Vree and some E-Mines from my Shaakak, but was merely dented, its return fire on one of the torpedo saucers also caused light damage.
Turn 3
With no losses on either side, and with the Ma’Cu now empty, it meant that the Chaos would be moving their last ship after the Tinashis, Simon started crying again… :wink:
The main area of battle was becoming congested with Gaim and League forces squaring off with the core of the Centauri fleet. The Demos and one of the Shadow scouts had now looped around our right flank, and the light raiders were charging down the right side to get in on the action… we pretty much ignored these however; Order had bigger fish to fry!
The Drakh Warship cruised up behind the Primus, its main beam in range of nearly everything… the Minbari stayed on the starboard side of the Primus and the Drakh ship, their mini-beams in range of one, beams in range of the other. The Shadow ship – now completely healed – moved out to take up position 19” behind the Tinashis.
A swarm of Gaim fighters had been engaged by a few plucky Centauri – a mix of Razik, Sentry and Rutarian – who won six dog-fights with sublime ease; the Gaim vessels performing so poorly, their fleet carrier decided to leave them all to the cold of space.
A second group of Gaim had targeted the Drakh Warship, but, as no criticals were scored, its GEG absorbed all the attacks.
The Shadow ship fired first, crippling and reducing to a skeleton crew, one of the Tinashis… which, as you’ve already guessed, caused Simon to bleat on about life’s general unfairness. My Vree Xill had moved into weapon range of the Primus, and one of my Vaarls had made sure of redirects on it. I pointed out to my learned friends that the Primus would likely give the Vree ship a pasting, so they agreed to let me fire first. The Primus took the damage and returned fire… Charles spread his fire though, so he only did slight damage to a couple of Gaim ships (including the Queen), and took the Xill down to about half points.
The Tinashis opened up on the Drakh cruiser with their beams, and two of them poured mini-beams into the Primus. Both Chaos ships were hurt, and the Drakh ship also took a weapons 4 crit, meaning that guns would only fire on a 4+ roll… good for us. 8)
The Liati, which was not looking too hot, easily obliterated 6 breaching pods that could have been used next turn, and the beam sliced into the Haltona. Unlucky rolling on Charles’ part meant that the Brakiri ship only took a few points of damage, and would be able to fire back. Fire back it did, to splendid effect… the side guns finished off the Primus, redirects allowing 7 out of 8 dice to hit. The front guns, including the slow-loading beam reached out to the Liati; which decided to not succeed in dodging at all, and was destroyed… two battle ships down in rapid succession!
The Demos continued to get peppered by torpedo fire, this time from the Ikortas as well as the Vree, but interceptors and “CBD” kept it operational.
Turn 4
The previous turn had pretty much turned the game in our favour, with the Primus and Liati out of the picture, and the Drakh Warship looking like it would not survive another Tinashi barrage, there was only the Shadow ship to worry about. Admittedly, the mighty ancient could probably kill a lesser ship every time it fired, but we were running out of time, and so we made this the final turn.
Both Shadow scouts and the Demos bore down on the Queen, the Shadow ship moved so that it too could add to the attack. The four Drakh raiders engaged the two Vree Xixx and the Pak’s Ikortas, and Paul lined up his Warship to also fire on the Gaim Queen.
The two Vree scouts and the Xixx moved to put one of the shadow scouts in range, the remaining Gaim ships angled to get shots at whoever they could.
Fighters swarmed the two Shadow scouts, and breaching pods attached themselves to the Demos. The Centauri fighters continued their war on the, now converted, Gaim ships, and once again, swathes of bugs were cut down… the fighter war, at least, was being won by the Centauri.
Huge amounts of E-Mines, plus fire from the Xixx and Ikortas made short work of the raiders, who, in turn, had continued to damage the Xixx previously worked over by the Demos.
The Drakh Warship found that it was unable to fire its beam at the Queen, but did manage to dole out some secondary fire onto one of the smaller Gaim vessels and the Haltona.
The Queens numerous interceptors negated fire from the Demos and one of the Scouts, the Young Shadow ship also only succeeded in inflicting minor damage (the Gaim ship having shed loads of damage and crew to spare). The Minbari finished off the Drakh ship, the Maximus and Demos also were taken down.
In the end, the forces of Order only lost a couple of ships; Chaos’ butcher’s bill was significantly higher.
On a plus point for Ben, he managed to keep his record of not losing a single ship through all 5 battles of the campaign!
Thoroughly enjoyed the campaign, despite having my ass handed to me by the Shadows and the Centauri (twice) but may have to shy away from the Pak’Mara next time… the -3 initiative is, quite literally, a killer!
If the above report is not 100% accurate, I apologise to the other players, and I’m sure one of them will point out any glaring omissions…
Last night, we played out the final battle of our current campaign. The campaign had been customised by our very own Greg Smith to only last 5 Turns; this was to accommodate one of our regulars heading back to university in a couple of weeks.
The finale would involve all 6 players – in two teams of 3 – each bringing 3pts of Battle PL from their respective fleet’s remaining ships…
We had the forces of Order – Greg Smith (Gaim), Simon Chandler (Minbari) and myself (League) vs. the foul minions of Chaos – Charles Lister (Centauri) and Paul Eyles (Drakh), led by their dark master Ben Harris (Shadows).
The scenario was one of our favourites – “First to Die Loses” :twisted: (Call to Arms)
Setup
With so many different Initiative scores in play, we devised a simple scheme – similar to the method employed at the last Mongoose tourney – both teams started at 0, but this could be modified by ships with the Command trait. As Charles had brought a Balvarin along as part of his fleet (as he often does) the Chaos init went to +1. Unfortunately, as my League fleet included a pair of Pak’Mara Ikortas, Order’s init was reduced to -3 :roll: .
We lost the setup roll, so one of our players would have to setup first, then a Chaos player, then one of us etc…
As there was a couple of asteroid fields on the left hand side of the table, near to our deployment zone, Simon (aka Chandler) and his Minbari were chosen to setup first. Everyone knew exactly what Simon would do in his 1st turn – his squadron of 3 Tinashi would head straight into the field to gain the additional Stealth boost.
Paul (aka Clanger) was the first Chaos player to setup, he had a Drakh Warship and Ma’Cu carrier (with 4 light raiders on board) and he positioned these on the extreme left flank of Chaos’ deployment zone… well away from the Minbari “beam team”.
Greg’s Gaim were next for us; he had a Sluuka Queen ship, a Skrunnka Assault ship and two Sataaka Gunships. These were all setup slightly left of centre, the Queen nearest to the table edge (the extreme range of the E-Mines affords the Gaim that luxury).
Charles (aka Da Boss) and his Centauri were next, he had a Primus, Liati, Balvarin, Maximus and Demos, all were placed, loosely, to the left of the Chaos centre.
My rag-tag group of League ships – a Vree Xill, 2 Vaarl, 2 Xixx, the 2 Pak Ikortas, a Brakiri Haltona and a Gaim Shaakak – were setup in and around Greg’s bugs.
Lastly, Ben (aka Diesel) placed his two Scouts among the Centauri ships, but had his Young Shadow ship setup behind a dust cloud on the Chaos teams extreme right… virtually opposite Simon’s Minbari… this caused Simon to immediately begin bemoaning his fate at the hands of the Shadows… and we hadn’t even started yet!
Turn 1
We never won initiative the entire game (stupid Pak’Mara) and so would always move first and fire second. Simon surprised no-one at all by moving the trio of Tinashis into the asteroid field, the lumbering Gaim ships (my Sataaka and Greg’s Queen) inched forward and “Scramble Scrambled” many more fighters and breaching pods onto the board. The Drakh War cruiser headed for the enemy, the Ma’Cu moved down the side and spewed forth the first pair of raiders, the Centauri’s Primus and Maximus came forward and “Closed Blast Doors”. My Vree ships split up, Vaarls and Xill heading left, the two Xixx Torpedo Saucers heading right.
Ben’s Scouts also headed in opposite directions, one towards the Young Ship, the other making a b-line for the Chaos left flank.
Greg’s remaining Gaim, along with my two Ikortas and the Haltona, accepted the challenge of the Primus, and moved towards the centre… “Where the metal meets the meat!”
The last ship to move was the Shadow Ship, and it sped right through the dust cloud and into range of the Tinashis… Simon continued to moan like a little girl about how the Shadows were going to kill his precious Tinashis
!Firing was light in this turn, the Shadow ship failed to see its target (Simon still cried) the return fire by the Minbari was less than inspiring, the Shadow Ship had its shields removed and took about a dozen points of damage. Simon had about 6 or 7 hits on the Young Ship after the shields had been depleted, but failed to score a single critical – we put this down to the forces of Chaos controlling the random element of dice! :shock:
Turn 2
All of my ships would split down to individuals this turn; we needed to keep the Tinashi team together as our “big-hitter” and we hoped that the Minbari’s gunners would get better…fast!
My Vaarls ambled over to where the Minbari were hiding, as I thought they might be needed for support soon. My Torpedo saucers used their SM move to slide over to the right, as it seemed the Shadow Scout and the Demos were looking to flank our forces.
My and Greg’s Gaim ships continued their inexorable crawl towards the enemy, backed up by the Ikortas and the Haltona. The Xill saucer was positioned so that it could bolster where needed.
The Primus and the Maximus, with the Drakh Warship not far behind, also headed for the “Flash Point”.
We had just enough ships on the board that Ben would have to move his Shadow Ship before Simon would have to move the boneheads.
Ben opted to move his Warship behind a second asteroid field, where the ship would soon repair… Simon started measuring ranges and turns in an effort to get the Shadow ship under his guns, but when one of his allies (me) pointed out that if he ignored the Shadow ship and headed out and to the right, he would be able to bring the Primus into beam range and would not be shot at in return! I feel that the “not shot at” part of my argument swayed the young admiral, and in a display of true Minbari courage, he diverted his attention to the Primus – which, for some reason, caused Charles to gesture rather rudely at me! :lol:
There was a lot more firing this turn, and the Centauri forces took the brunt of it. Charles insisted that the Primus be allowed to fire first, as he was sure that it would not get another chance. The Primus battered the Gaim Skrunnka, but it survived the onslaught. The Liati was chosen for Greg’s E-Mine assault and he dropped 18 AD on top of the Centauri Battle ship. With “Close Blast Doors” saving a few points of damage and crew, the Liati still took about half of its totals. Simon’s Tinashis lit up the Primus, but poor rolling, and a lack of criticals, meant that the resilient battleship was still in – relatively – good shape.
Paul had the Drakh Warship continue the attack on the Skrunnka, but despite being crippled and having 3 or 4 weapons crits, the Gaim ship soldiered on.
The Demos took a few torpedoes from the Vree and some E-Mines from my Shaakak, but was merely dented, its return fire on one of the torpedo saucers also caused light damage.
Turn 3
With no losses on either side, and with the Ma’Cu now empty, it meant that the Chaos would be moving their last ship after the Tinashis, Simon started crying again… :wink:
The main area of battle was becoming congested with Gaim and League forces squaring off with the core of the Centauri fleet. The Demos and one of the Shadow scouts had now looped around our right flank, and the light raiders were charging down the right side to get in on the action… we pretty much ignored these however; Order had bigger fish to fry!
The Drakh Warship cruised up behind the Primus, its main beam in range of nearly everything… the Minbari stayed on the starboard side of the Primus and the Drakh ship, their mini-beams in range of one, beams in range of the other. The Shadow ship – now completely healed – moved out to take up position 19” behind the Tinashis.
A swarm of Gaim fighters had been engaged by a few plucky Centauri – a mix of Razik, Sentry and Rutarian – who won six dog-fights with sublime ease; the Gaim vessels performing so poorly, their fleet carrier decided to leave them all to the cold of space.
A second group of Gaim had targeted the Drakh Warship, but, as no criticals were scored, its GEG absorbed all the attacks.
The Shadow ship fired first, crippling and reducing to a skeleton crew, one of the Tinashis… which, as you’ve already guessed, caused Simon to bleat on about life’s general unfairness. My Vree Xill had moved into weapon range of the Primus, and one of my Vaarls had made sure of redirects on it. I pointed out to my learned friends that the Primus would likely give the Vree ship a pasting, so they agreed to let me fire first. The Primus took the damage and returned fire… Charles spread his fire though, so he only did slight damage to a couple of Gaim ships (including the Queen), and took the Xill down to about half points.
The Tinashis opened up on the Drakh cruiser with their beams, and two of them poured mini-beams into the Primus. Both Chaos ships were hurt, and the Drakh ship also took a weapons 4 crit, meaning that guns would only fire on a 4+ roll… good for us. 8)
The Liati, which was not looking too hot, easily obliterated 6 breaching pods that could have been used next turn, and the beam sliced into the Haltona. Unlucky rolling on Charles’ part meant that the Brakiri ship only took a few points of damage, and would be able to fire back. Fire back it did, to splendid effect… the side guns finished off the Primus, redirects allowing 7 out of 8 dice to hit. The front guns, including the slow-loading beam reached out to the Liati; which decided to not succeed in dodging at all, and was destroyed… two battle ships down in rapid succession!
The Demos continued to get peppered by torpedo fire, this time from the Ikortas as well as the Vree, but interceptors and “CBD” kept it operational.
Turn 4
The previous turn had pretty much turned the game in our favour, with the Primus and Liati out of the picture, and the Drakh Warship looking like it would not survive another Tinashi barrage, there was only the Shadow ship to worry about. Admittedly, the mighty ancient could probably kill a lesser ship every time it fired, but we were running out of time, and so we made this the final turn.
Both Shadow scouts and the Demos bore down on the Queen, the Shadow ship moved so that it too could add to the attack. The four Drakh raiders engaged the two Vree Xixx and the Pak’s Ikortas, and Paul lined up his Warship to also fire on the Gaim Queen.
The two Vree scouts and the Xixx moved to put one of the shadow scouts in range, the remaining Gaim ships angled to get shots at whoever they could.
Fighters swarmed the two Shadow scouts, and breaching pods attached themselves to the Demos. The Centauri fighters continued their war on the, now converted, Gaim ships, and once again, swathes of bugs were cut down… the fighter war, at least, was being won by the Centauri.
Huge amounts of E-Mines, plus fire from the Xixx and Ikortas made short work of the raiders, who, in turn, had continued to damage the Xixx previously worked over by the Demos.
The Drakh Warship found that it was unable to fire its beam at the Queen, but did manage to dole out some secondary fire onto one of the smaller Gaim vessels and the Haltona.
The Queens numerous interceptors negated fire from the Demos and one of the Scouts, the Young Shadow ship also only succeeded in inflicting minor damage (the Gaim ship having shed loads of damage and crew to spare). The Minbari finished off the Drakh ship, the Maximus and Demos also were taken down.
In the end, the forces of Order only lost a couple of ships; Chaos’ butcher’s bill was significantly higher.
On a plus point for Ben, he managed to keep his record of not losing a single ship through all 5 battles of the campaign!
Thoroughly enjoyed the campaign, despite having my ass handed to me by the Shadows and the Centauri (twice) but may have to shy away from the Pak’Mara next time… the -3 initiative is, quite literally, a killer!
If the above report is not 100% accurate, I apologise to the other players, and I’m sure one of them will point out any glaring omissions…
