For L33t's game with me, I fielded:
Juyaca
Lakara
Lakara
Milani x 4
Tiraca x 8
The field was a pair of planet size asteroids with several small asteroids scattered around the table.
With the terrain the way it was, we had 3 good options for closing the range with each other. One on each side, with one of them being quite narrow (which proved painful quickly), and one in the middle.
I took a chance and split off about a quarter of my firepower and almost half my ships (2 Milani squadroned with 2 Tiraca, and 4 squadroned Tiraca) off on one side and the rest of my fleet (the 3 biggies squadroned together, and the others squadroned same as above) on the far side.
L33tpenguin responded by placing his 3 Battle ships (Squadroned Marathons and Apollo Strike) facing my big guns and the Warlock and Chronos (squadroned in pairs) facing my weaker formation.
As is to be expected, I APTEs my entire fleet the first turn but was unable to reach my range of him. L33tpenguin, however, only All Stopped the Apollo. Fire for the first turn was rather uneventful. The Marathons and Apollo went for my Juyaca and a Tiraca, doing minor damage to the Tiraca and seeing their best efforts devoured by the Juyaca's shields (I forgot about the Juyaca's INT that round).
Second turn, I hit the gravfield with my smaller formation and squirt through the hole between that asteroid and the table edge, putting that formation into VERY close proximity with each other. His Marathons close into the very heart of my larger formation with the Apollo still hanging back. The Warlock makes 1 Milani go BOOM, breaking the shields of most of that formation (and they never recover) and the Marathons and Apollo manage a whopping Starboard Arc Weapons crit on a Tiraca in return for crippling damage to one and a love stroke to the other (just to let her know that "Free Lovin'" is still a proud Hippy tradition. Oh, did I mention that this is "The Hippy Fleet?" I named my ships after proud Hippy events and personages, such as the THS Woodstock and the THS Winter Soldier).
3rd turn, My main formation grabs the grav well of the nearest planetoid and swings into the flank of the Warlock/Chronos formation leaving behind a Lakara and a damaged Tiraca to fight the Apollo (which promptly kills the Tiraca). The Marathons are stuck behind the planetoid and do nothing this turn. The Warlock gets another Tiraca kill but is crippled into helplessness by Precise beams.
4th turn, The Marathons come back into the fray just long enough to die. A Milani and more Tiracas die. The apollo and Lakara duel.
5th turn, the Chronos claim a Lakara kill with a lucky 6/6 Crit on DD. BOOM. The other Lakara finishes off the Apollo. The Juyaca, 2 remaining Milanis and 2 of the 3 remaining Tiracas kill 2 Chronos.
We called the game with the EA Military claiming 6 Tiraca, 2 Milani and 1 Lakara kill for 28 Pts and the Hippies claiming 2 Marathons, an Apollo and 2 Chronos for 36. We might have gone longer if the Warlock had not been ADRIFT for the last 2 turns and failed every Damage Control check.
I told L33tpenguin that after an hour of working on it, I had been unable to build a Crusade fleet I would have been happy fielding, but he was bound and determined and fielded almost exactly what I had thought of (he swapped out an Apollo for an Apollo Strike). After discussing it afterward, we both realized that there were FAR superior choices available. Like 3 Apollo Strikes and 8 Chronos with the mandatory War choice (Warlock or Omega Command).
L33tpenguin wants to hit War Priority next game and I'm thinking since we should have all day, 10 War with 1 mandatory Armageddon choice (but I want to play ISA for that).
Then maybe we can play smaller games and I can try out the Pak...
This is why I use Triggy's system in preference to the original - runaways and flat misses can still happen, just not as often.
