My Fleet (Minbari) – 2 x Sharlin, 2 x Tinashi, Morshin, 2 x Ashinta, 2 x Tigara, Leshath, 2 x Torotha
Triggy (EA Crusade) – The Excalibur (Victory Class Destroyer), Warlock, 2 x Omega Destroyer,
Hyperion Cruiser, Explorer, 3 x Assault Hyperion, 2 x Hermes
With the Morshin giving me a +1 boost, and Triggy’s Excalibur lending him a +3 bonus, we started out on equal Initiative scores. I won the dice off for deployment and opted for the side of the table that had more terrain – mistake number 1!
We used the Walsall system for deployment, in that, players – starting with whoever lost the Initiative roll – would alternate placing one ship or squadron onto the board. I find this a fairer way of setting up than having the losing player deploy his entire fleet – thereby allowing the winner to see exactly where everything is – before the winner deploys their ships.
The scenario we had randomly generated was Space Superiority, so the deployment zones were very large. Triggy had his Explorer and the three Assault Hyperions setup near to the only asteroid field on the board, which was situated on his left flank; the Hyperion Cruiser and both Hermes were at the opposite end of the deployment zone, tightly placed together. These smaller ships would be acting as init sinks for the big guns that Triggy had setup nearby, the Victory on its own, the Warlock and two Omegas were in an uber beam team.
I placed the Leshath and Morshin on my right flank – also near to some terrain – with one of the Ashintas nearby. The Sharlins and Tinashis were placed, in a squadron, nearer to the centre of the board. The remainder of my fleet – the 2nd Ashinta and a squadron of Tigaras and Torothas – were left in hyperspace, along with 8 of the 9 Nials that could start the game deployed.
Turn 1
I lost initiative and had to move first. I had worried that Triggy would have some forces in hyperspace, and that my Leshath would be targeted for possible Jump Point Bomb attack. However, as he had deployed entirely in “real” space, this was no longer a concern. With that, I moved my Leshath, one of the Ashintas and the Morshin forward, into and around the nearby dust cloud, the Morshin attempted to “Scramble, Scramble” but failed. Triggy moved the Assault Hyperions and the Explorer to manoeuvre around the asteroid field, the Explorer also failing its “Scramble” attempt.
Over on the “interesting” side of the board, I used the Torothas and Tigaras to open 4 jump points in and around the tightly packed Hyperion Cruiser and Hermes’, the three jump points that would have caught both Hermes all failed, but the one that would catch the Hyperion succeeded and the Earth ship took quite a big crew loss. Triggy moved the Hermes’ forward and I opened a final jump point with my Ashinta… this too succeeded, and I caught both of the patrol ships in its blast. One was left with a single crewman on board, the other was de-crewed – first blood to the boneheads!
I sent the big ships forward, far enough - I thought - that they couldn’t be seen by Triggys beam team, but, unfortunately, I had misjudged how fast the Omegas and Warlock could move, so Triggy managed to get two of the three ships far enough past an intervening dust cloud to target one of my Sharlins. Fortunately (and this would be repeated quite often throughout the engagement) Triggy could not break Stealth with either, and no firing took place.
Turn 2
I won initiative this time. Triggy and I continued with our “init sink” manoeuvring – he with the Assault Hyperions, Explorer and the remaining Hermes, me with the Leshath, Morshin and one of the Ashintas. I split off one of the Torothas from the hyperspace squadron, so that it could keep a jump point open for the remaining ships and the Nials. The damaged Hyperion Cruiser moved to the dust cloud that the Hermes had headed for; and, with its entry point so close to Triggy’s big ships, I decided to keep the 2nd Ashinta in hyperspace.
Knowing that I couldn’t get my squadron away from the Victory and the beam team, I took the bull by the horns and turned the squadron to face the dust cloud that Triggy would have to come through, if he wanted to shoot at me… with me firing first, I hoped that this would be a sufficient deterrent to some or even all the EA ships… but it wasn’t! Triggy moved the Victory up to the top edge of the dust cloud, and had the Warlock and one of the Omegas follow suit. This would mean that only one of my Sharlins would be able to fire upon them, and he would have all three of his ships to return fire :shock:
The only chance that the Sharlin had, the way I saw it, was to reduce the amount of ships that would be firing at it. With that theory in mind, the squadron of Tigaras and Torotha swept out of the jump point and all three succeeded in “Concentrate All Firepower” orders on the Omega!
Triggy’s bevy of Thunderbolts swept to defend the Battle ship, but before they could unleash their impressive firepower, Nials poured forth from the jump point and engaged them in dogfights. Needless to say, with Thunderbolts on +1 and Nials on +4 (with the Morshin’s Fleet Carrier bonus) all the Earthers were destroyed.
To further add to Triggy’s pain, the firing from the Tigara squadron was way above average and the Omega was reduced to vapour! The resultant explosion failed to kill any of the three Nials that were caught in the blast, but both Tigaras were lightly damaged, as was the Warlock and the, already damaged, Hyperion Cruiser.
As Triggy’s Explorer had failed to Scout the Sharlin, he decided to try and see it with the Hermes in an attempt to reduce Stealth for the Warlock and Victory. This attempt failed, and allowed me to fire the Sharlin before it got – probably – humped.
The Sharlin itself fired mini-beams at the Victory for very little effect, and the main beam at the Warlock, that didn’t really do much more. On a plus point, its sister Sharlin could just see the damaged Hermes and finished it off… then it was Triggy’s turn. The Warlock saw the Sharlin and my heart sank. The beam and rail gun lit the War ship up like a Xmas tree and left it missing one trait… yep, its Stealth :roll:
With no Stealth to beat, the Victory’s gunners smiled warmly and opened up… a massive beam hit left the Sharlin on more than -50 damage and the resulting explosion engulfed 4 of the 5 Nials that I had placed on Interceptor duty!
The only other shooting this turn was the lone Ashinta confronting the Explorer and Assault Hyperions, with its longer range gun; it began to chip away at one of the Hyperions.
Turn 3
Once again, I lost initiative. As many of you know, having to move first is not always that much of a problem, its firing second that can, quite literally, be a killer!
On the initiative sink side of the board, my Morshin turned towards the approaching Assault Hyperions, and the Leshath tucked itself to the side of the dust cloud. The Ashinta continued to inch closer to the Skirmish ships, but still managed to keep out of their range.
Over with the big boys, things were getting a little congested. The 2nd Ashinta had emerged from the Torotha’s jump point and succeeded in an “Intensify Defensive Firepower” order. The badly damaged Hyperion Cruiser limped through the conflagration and the 2nd Torotha finally emerged from hyperspace and bore down upon it.
The Victory decided that, having targets to the front and rear, it would “All Stop”. This meant that, if I wanted to get my 2nd Sharlin out of the Victory’s Front arc, I’d have to “All Power to Engines” which is exactly what I did. The rest of the squadron, consisting of more manoeuvrable Tinashi’s, just sped into the dust cloud that the Victory was sitting right outside of and relied on the bonus from the cloud balancing up Triggy’s bonus for being within 8”
With all of my ships moved, Triggy still had the squadron to go, the remaining Omega got its rear boresight on one of the Torothas and the Warlock entered the dust cloud to stick its guns right down one of the Tinashi’s throat… to really make sure that Battle ship was gonna get it, Triggy succeeded in “Concentrating All Firepower” on it!
Triggy had about 8 or 9 Starfuries on hand to dogfight against the Nials that were still warm from their one-sided fight against the T-Bolts, but he’d forgotten that I’d succeeded in intensifying the Anti-Fighter dice on the Ashinta that was sitting right in the middle of the dog-fight! 12 dice of Advanced Anti-Fighter fire – combined with typically jammy rolling on my part – saw virtually all of them get blown out of the sky, and the ones that survived, were killed off by the Nials! The fighter war was definitely being won by the Minbari…
Triggy’s luck with Stealth continued, and despite being Scouted and shot and with the Warlock within 8” of the Tinashi, the dice showed a single dot, and no firing would emerge from the Warlock this turn. The Omega saw a couple of ships (one Tigara, one Torotha) but failed to do much damage. The Tinashis knocked off some more of the Victory’s paintwork with their side mini-beams, but the front guns saw the Warlock take exactly its limit, the proud EA warship was removed from the fight.
The Victory worked over a couple of ships, including the, quite badly, damaged Tigara, but no more Minbari ships were lost. The Tigara team, the reduced guns on the Ashinta, and the two Torotha, managed to see off the Hyperion Cruiser and damage the remaining Omega.
Turn 4
With quite a few more ships on the board, it was typical that I would also win initiative this turn. Triggy’s Assault Hyperions and Explorer continued their plod down the side of the table, and my Ashinta could only get out of their path. My Leshath and Morshin got to within firing distance of the Hyperions and an exchange of fire between these ships resulted in more damage to the one Hyperion and a few points to the Ashinta.
The Victory broke away from the dust cloud and looked like the Morshin was going to be its chosen victim – albeit a long range. I had the two Torothas to act as pure init sinks, and didn’t need to expose them to any danger any more. The 2nd Ashinta and the Tigaras positioned themselves to pour more fire into the Victory or Omega, whichever was needed.
My Sharlin “All Stopped” even though it moved a few inches, in preparation for a swifter turn around next time. The two Tinashis squared up to the port side of the Omega and let him have it… With another Battle ship in the bag, the only dangerous ship remaining was the Victory (yeah, only!) which did succeed in seeing the Morshin, and took it down from full health to having only 3 crew remaining!
Everything that could, including the rear beam on the Sharlin continued to work over the Armageddon PL beast, and it took a weapon hit that would mean that it needed a 4+ to fire. Other than that, it was still going strong.
Turn 5
This turn saw the demise of the damaged Assault Hyperion, but I had lots of my ships going to help in this particular battle. The Victory saw the Morshin again, and it was done for. The Victory kept taking damage and a few critical hits – one of them removing Triggy’s ability to attempt Special Actions. He declared that his plan would have been to duck into a dust cloud and try “All Hands on Deck”, but the no special actions crit blew that plan out of the water. With time ticking on, we called it their…
Final butchers bill read thus:-
EA lost a Warlock, 2 Omega, Hyperion Cruiser, Hyperion Assault craft and 2 Hermes – 26pts
Minbari lost a Sharlin and a Morshin – 15pts
All in all, a good game. I really should have chosen the less terrain heavy side for my setup, as this would have meant that Triggy’s fleet would have had to advance into the face of my guns, but as it was, we got into a short range furball – which doesn’t suit the Minbari!
Triggy seemed to suffer the wrath of the dice gods on more occasions than I, and I got pretty lucky on a couple of critical rolls. However, he took it all in stride and was plotting and planning all the way to the end. The two big boy squadrons didn’t really get to affect the game that much, mine because of bad positioning, Triggy because of Stealth.
Hold on, the way I’m making it seem is that I was desperately lucky and that Triggy should have beaten me soundly if Stealth didn’t save me :? … and to be fair, the game would have been a sight closer if the luck had evened out... but I’d still have won cos’ I is great!!! 8)
:twisted:
I think the jury is still out on Grand Master of the Universe :wink:
Triggy (EA Crusade) – The Excalibur (Victory Class Destroyer), Warlock, 2 x Omega Destroyer,
Hyperion Cruiser, Explorer, 3 x Assault Hyperion, 2 x Hermes
With the Morshin giving me a +1 boost, and Triggy’s Excalibur lending him a +3 bonus, we started out on equal Initiative scores. I won the dice off for deployment and opted for the side of the table that had more terrain – mistake number 1!
We used the Walsall system for deployment, in that, players – starting with whoever lost the Initiative roll – would alternate placing one ship or squadron onto the board. I find this a fairer way of setting up than having the losing player deploy his entire fleet – thereby allowing the winner to see exactly where everything is – before the winner deploys their ships.
The scenario we had randomly generated was Space Superiority, so the deployment zones were very large. Triggy had his Explorer and the three Assault Hyperions setup near to the only asteroid field on the board, which was situated on his left flank; the Hyperion Cruiser and both Hermes were at the opposite end of the deployment zone, tightly placed together. These smaller ships would be acting as init sinks for the big guns that Triggy had setup nearby, the Victory on its own, the Warlock and two Omegas were in an uber beam team.
I placed the Leshath and Morshin on my right flank – also near to some terrain – with one of the Ashintas nearby. The Sharlins and Tinashis were placed, in a squadron, nearer to the centre of the board. The remainder of my fleet – the 2nd Ashinta and a squadron of Tigaras and Torothas – were left in hyperspace, along with 8 of the 9 Nials that could start the game deployed.
Turn 1
I lost initiative and had to move first. I had worried that Triggy would have some forces in hyperspace, and that my Leshath would be targeted for possible Jump Point Bomb attack. However, as he had deployed entirely in “real” space, this was no longer a concern. With that, I moved my Leshath, one of the Ashintas and the Morshin forward, into and around the nearby dust cloud, the Morshin attempted to “Scramble, Scramble” but failed. Triggy moved the Assault Hyperions and the Explorer to manoeuvre around the asteroid field, the Explorer also failing its “Scramble” attempt.
Over on the “interesting” side of the board, I used the Torothas and Tigaras to open 4 jump points in and around the tightly packed Hyperion Cruiser and Hermes’, the three jump points that would have caught both Hermes all failed, but the one that would catch the Hyperion succeeded and the Earth ship took quite a big crew loss. Triggy moved the Hermes’ forward and I opened a final jump point with my Ashinta… this too succeeded, and I caught both of the patrol ships in its blast. One was left with a single crewman on board, the other was de-crewed – first blood to the boneheads!
I sent the big ships forward, far enough - I thought - that they couldn’t be seen by Triggys beam team, but, unfortunately, I had misjudged how fast the Omegas and Warlock could move, so Triggy managed to get two of the three ships far enough past an intervening dust cloud to target one of my Sharlins. Fortunately (and this would be repeated quite often throughout the engagement) Triggy could not break Stealth with either, and no firing took place.
Turn 2
I won initiative this time. Triggy and I continued with our “init sink” manoeuvring – he with the Assault Hyperions, Explorer and the remaining Hermes, me with the Leshath, Morshin and one of the Ashintas. I split off one of the Torothas from the hyperspace squadron, so that it could keep a jump point open for the remaining ships and the Nials. The damaged Hyperion Cruiser moved to the dust cloud that the Hermes had headed for; and, with its entry point so close to Triggy’s big ships, I decided to keep the 2nd Ashinta in hyperspace.
Knowing that I couldn’t get my squadron away from the Victory and the beam team, I took the bull by the horns and turned the squadron to face the dust cloud that Triggy would have to come through, if he wanted to shoot at me… with me firing first, I hoped that this would be a sufficient deterrent to some or even all the EA ships… but it wasn’t! Triggy moved the Victory up to the top edge of the dust cloud, and had the Warlock and one of the Omegas follow suit. This would mean that only one of my Sharlins would be able to fire upon them, and he would have all three of his ships to return fire :shock:
The only chance that the Sharlin had, the way I saw it, was to reduce the amount of ships that would be firing at it. With that theory in mind, the squadron of Tigaras and Torotha swept out of the jump point and all three succeeded in “Concentrate All Firepower” orders on the Omega!
Triggy’s bevy of Thunderbolts swept to defend the Battle ship, but before they could unleash their impressive firepower, Nials poured forth from the jump point and engaged them in dogfights. Needless to say, with Thunderbolts on +1 and Nials on +4 (with the Morshin’s Fleet Carrier bonus) all the Earthers were destroyed.
To further add to Triggy’s pain, the firing from the Tigara squadron was way above average and the Omega was reduced to vapour! The resultant explosion failed to kill any of the three Nials that were caught in the blast, but both Tigaras were lightly damaged, as was the Warlock and the, already damaged, Hyperion Cruiser.
As Triggy’s Explorer had failed to Scout the Sharlin, he decided to try and see it with the Hermes in an attempt to reduce Stealth for the Warlock and Victory. This attempt failed, and allowed me to fire the Sharlin before it got – probably – humped.
The Sharlin itself fired mini-beams at the Victory for very little effect, and the main beam at the Warlock, that didn’t really do much more. On a plus point, its sister Sharlin could just see the damaged Hermes and finished it off… then it was Triggy’s turn. The Warlock saw the Sharlin and my heart sank. The beam and rail gun lit the War ship up like a Xmas tree and left it missing one trait… yep, its Stealth :roll:
With no Stealth to beat, the Victory’s gunners smiled warmly and opened up… a massive beam hit left the Sharlin on more than -50 damage and the resulting explosion engulfed 4 of the 5 Nials that I had placed on Interceptor duty!
The only other shooting this turn was the lone Ashinta confronting the Explorer and Assault Hyperions, with its longer range gun; it began to chip away at one of the Hyperions.
Turn 3
Once again, I lost initiative. As many of you know, having to move first is not always that much of a problem, its firing second that can, quite literally, be a killer!
On the initiative sink side of the board, my Morshin turned towards the approaching Assault Hyperions, and the Leshath tucked itself to the side of the dust cloud. The Ashinta continued to inch closer to the Skirmish ships, but still managed to keep out of their range.
Over with the big boys, things were getting a little congested. The 2nd Ashinta had emerged from the Torotha’s jump point and succeeded in an “Intensify Defensive Firepower” order. The badly damaged Hyperion Cruiser limped through the conflagration and the 2nd Torotha finally emerged from hyperspace and bore down upon it.
The Victory decided that, having targets to the front and rear, it would “All Stop”. This meant that, if I wanted to get my 2nd Sharlin out of the Victory’s Front arc, I’d have to “All Power to Engines” which is exactly what I did. The rest of the squadron, consisting of more manoeuvrable Tinashi’s, just sped into the dust cloud that the Victory was sitting right outside of and relied on the bonus from the cloud balancing up Triggy’s bonus for being within 8”
With all of my ships moved, Triggy still had the squadron to go, the remaining Omega got its rear boresight on one of the Torothas and the Warlock entered the dust cloud to stick its guns right down one of the Tinashi’s throat… to really make sure that Battle ship was gonna get it, Triggy succeeded in “Concentrating All Firepower” on it!
Triggy had about 8 or 9 Starfuries on hand to dogfight against the Nials that were still warm from their one-sided fight against the T-Bolts, but he’d forgotten that I’d succeeded in intensifying the Anti-Fighter dice on the Ashinta that was sitting right in the middle of the dog-fight! 12 dice of Advanced Anti-Fighter fire – combined with typically jammy rolling on my part – saw virtually all of them get blown out of the sky, and the ones that survived, were killed off by the Nials! The fighter war was definitely being won by the Minbari…
Triggy’s luck with Stealth continued, and despite being Scouted and shot and with the Warlock within 8” of the Tinashi, the dice showed a single dot, and no firing would emerge from the Warlock this turn. The Omega saw a couple of ships (one Tigara, one Torotha) but failed to do much damage. The Tinashis knocked off some more of the Victory’s paintwork with their side mini-beams, but the front guns saw the Warlock take exactly its limit, the proud EA warship was removed from the fight.
The Victory worked over a couple of ships, including the, quite badly, damaged Tigara, but no more Minbari ships were lost. The Tigara team, the reduced guns on the Ashinta, and the two Torotha, managed to see off the Hyperion Cruiser and damage the remaining Omega.
Turn 4
With quite a few more ships on the board, it was typical that I would also win initiative this turn. Triggy’s Assault Hyperions and Explorer continued their plod down the side of the table, and my Ashinta could only get out of their path. My Leshath and Morshin got to within firing distance of the Hyperions and an exchange of fire between these ships resulted in more damage to the one Hyperion and a few points to the Ashinta.
The Victory broke away from the dust cloud and looked like the Morshin was going to be its chosen victim – albeit a long range. I had the two Torothas to act as pure init sinks, and didn’t need to expose them to any danger any more. The 2nd Ashinta and the Tigaras positioned themselves to pour more fire into the Victory or Omega, whichever was needed.
My Sharlin “All Stopped” even though it moved a few inches, in preparation for a swifter turn around next time. The two Tinashis squared up to the port side of the Omega and let him have it… With another Battle ship in the bag, the only dangerous ship remaining was the Victory (yeah, only!) which did succeed in seeing the Morshin, and took it down from full health to having only 3 crew remaining!
Everything that could, including the rear beam on the Sharlin continued to work over the Armageddon PL beast, and it took a weapon hit that would mean that it needed a 4+ to fire. Other than that, it was still going strong.
Turn 5
This turn saw the demise of the damaged Assault Hyperion, but I had lots of my ships going to help in this particular battle. The Victory saw the Morshin again, and it was done for. The Victory kept taking damage and a few critical hits – one of them removing Triggy’s ability to attempt Special Actions. He declared that his plan would have been to duck into a dust cloud and try “All Hands on Deck”, but the no special actions crit blew that plan out of the water. With time ticking on, we called it their…
Final butchers bill read thus:-
EA lost a Warlock, 2 Omega, Hyperion Cruiser, Hyperion Assault craft and 2 Hermes – 26pts
Minbari lost a Sharlin and a Morshin – 15pts
All in all, a good game. I really should have chosen the less terrain heavy side for my setup, as this would have meant that Triggy’s fleet would have had to advance into the face of my guns, but as it was, we got into a short range furball – which doesn’t suit the Minbari!
Triggy seemed to suffer the wrath of the dice gods on more occasions than I, and I got pretty lucky on a couple of critical rolls. However, he took it all in stride and was plotting and planning all the way to the end. The two big boy squadrons didn’t really get to affect the game that much, mine because of bad positioning, Triggy because of Stealth.
Hold on, the way I’m making it seem is that I was desperately lucky and that Triggy should have beaten me soundly if Stealth didn’t save me :? … and to be fair, the game would have been a sight closer if the luck had evened out... but I’d still have won cos’ I is great!!! 8)
:twisted: I think the jury is still out on Grand Master of the Universe :wink:
