Star Fleet's Finest battle reports

[Greg Smith]

Game 1:

Rescue vs Derek (Klingons)
My fleet: Kirov, 2 DWD war destroyers.
His D7c, D5W and a frigate.

At first it seemed like my firepower couldn't knock out a Klingon frigate. But after several rounds of shooting at long range, it fell. Then I mopped up his remainder. His fleet couldn't stand against my massed drone firepower once I out numbered him.

Result: 20-0 to me

Game 2: We Come in Peace vs Andy.
My fleet: Dreadnought, 2 Ramius, 1 Texas, 1 Callahan.
Him: Dreadnought, 2 Ortega 2 Burke (I think)

We both set up to grab objectives in the first turn. His dreadnought faced mine for one. My police cutter face a destroyer, two smaller ships faced off a third and one of his went for the fourth.

His dreadnought got 4 photon torpedoes through the shield of my dreadnought, inflicting massive damage and crits. Despite that it grabbed an objective and limped away with all hands on deck, repairing several escalating crits.

I kept parking my smaller ships next to one objective and exploding them, so couldn't prevent him getting away with two objective on one side of the board. My Texas seriously damaged the frigate that claimed the fourth objective, but was just short of preventing it fleeing the table.

Result 3-17

Game 3: Fleet Action vs Paul
My fleet: the combined fleets from games 1& 2.

Paul's Romulans were out sinked and he didn't win initiative. I held my position and deployed a large number of suicide shuttles as his cloaked fleet approached. He decloked and tried to draw me out but I wouldn't take the bait. He didn't win initiative all game and couldn't get close firing for his plasma. His phaser rolls were terrible and he did precious little damage while my drone told badly on his ships. To get close, his KRC dreadnought lunged into my fleet, and overloaded photons from my dreadnought wrecked its weapons before it could inflict hell. It was quickly finished off before even the swarm of suicide shuttles could bomb it. After that annihilation was inevitable for Paul's few remaining ships.

Result 20-0 to me.

Game 4: Rally Point Red vs Stuart.
My fleet: prvious fleets plus: Kirov, Chicago, 2 Manta Ray & Kearsarge

This was the game that would win or lose me the tournament. Having played Stuart previously, I knew it would be an interesting and challenging game.

With our fleets showing up with random amounts of damage and criticals, rolls before battle commenced would be crucial. Stuart's ships suffered a lot of criticals but Two of mine (a Ramius and a Callahan) were destroyed and two more we crippled.

So rolling randomly fro ship entry, I had two relatively undamaged ships heading for his early entrants. But very quickly his fleet were reinforced by much of the remainder of his fleets. My dreadnought and 2 cruisers were quickly faced by 4 dreadnoughts on his side. With ships destroyed before I started and two of my ships (a battlecruiser and a new fast cruiser) refusing to arrive throughout the game, I felt like I was fighting with one hand behind my back.

I destroyed a dreadnought and a Prometheus, but lost a dreadnought, battlecruiser and new heavy cruiser.

Rally Point Red is a fun scenario, but a lousy tournament game.

Result 3-17.

Overall 4th place.

 

[Ben2]

I honestly thought I'd turn up and get the Chunky Monkey.

I had a fall during the week and a concussion from it, so I'd like to thank my opponents for bearing with me when I forgot things like the rules, their names, my name, which ship I'd fired and the difference between ships.

I went with the following lists -

500 point - C7 Battlecruiser, D5 War Cruiser, E4 Escort
750 - C8 Dreadnought, 2 FD7 Fast cruisers
1000 - 2 C7 Battlecruisers, D5W Heavy Cruiser, D5 War Cruiser, D6 Cruiser

I was one of the few players who only took one dreadnought (and the 750 point fleet had to have one) but I took 3 battlecruisers (don't know if anyone else did, chime in if so).

First game an Impulse critical stopped me getting back in and contesting the Rescue objective on Turn 8, though Clanger used the Romulan cloak very well and for the purpose for which it exists, for choosing when battle is joined, and doing so when you are happy you are in an advantageous position.

Second game I'd planned ahead when selecting the force, and fast cruisers are great for snagging objectives and getting off the board. Without the compulsory dreadnought soaking up half the points for most fleets in this game, I think it'd be a scenario where the biggest ship you see is a fast cruiser, and frigates and destroyers would make it a really fun game because they die under fire and release the objective and so the same objective can change hands several times.

Most games of 'We Come in Peace (shoot to kill) ended in draws with two objectives grabbed each (this was a four objective variation). I used terrain to grab two with one fast cruiser and remain completely untouchable to enemy fire.

The fleet action went ok, I was up against Romulans again (a Condor, a Kc9R, 2 KRs, a Sparrowhawk and a KF5R). By the end the KC9R, Sparrowhawk and a KR was toast, I'd knocked down most of the Condors shields, and while I'd lost my Dreadnought, I still had the C7 and both FD7s pretty mint and able to come back for another pass if the game had carried on. My opponent had lost his cruisers basically, and I could have danced around and picked away at him all day considering how maneuverable the Condor was unless he'd wanted to cloak it, in which case it would be an exercise in dice rolling and wrist slitting as I danced around out of range and he had a 2+ stealth save against any hits I scored.

Rally Point Red saw me lose my E4 in the damage rolling phase (rolled 10 damage and 6 criticals). I also crippled the D5W, got level 2 impulse crits on both FD7s, etc etc. I then only got two ships come on while half my opponents fleet came on in turn 2. Slowly my entire fleet turned up, but all my battlecruisers stayed away till I got one on turn 4.

Rally Point Red was a game of sniping. Generally everybody had full shields but was quite close to crippled, so leak points could have a huge effect.

I did roll terribly all game, missing almost continually with disruptors, not getting crits with phasers, and losing the initiative round after round despite having a +1 advantage as Andy D was playing Federation. I narrowly won, but it took ages to blow up the Federation dreadnought, and not rolling a 1 every time I got a drone through someones defences, or firing 4 disruptors needing 3s and getting 3 1s would have seen ships go down quicker and more of them.

Rally Point Red is too random to be a tournament scenario. The luck element is too great.

On ship notes

The FD7 is a great ship. I firmly believed pairs of fast ships were a viable use of 400 points for Klingons or Federation and I'm happy I'm right now. While possibly the nastiest fast cruiser is the Romulan Fasthawk (it's also the most expensive), the FD7 is a very nice Klingon ship. Within 8" a phaser-1 is better than a disruptor anyway, and a pair of them can lay down some serious pain.

I'm going with a pair of fast cruisers for each of my fleets (and that's Fed, Klingon, Romulan, Gorn plus small Tholian and Orion contingents) to which I will add light dreadnoughts when they arrive, allowing me to put together around 750 point fast fleets.

Given I started the day trying to get Matt to give a prize for the 'Most Medicated' or 'Most Concussed' participant, I did very well coming third, and again I'd like to thank everyone for being patient with me.

I got a £50 voucher, which I immediately turned into a Klingon and Orion squadron box, a Fasthawk and a Royalhawk. I then picked up a Klingon squadron box so that if we do something like this again soon I can field two C8 dreadnoughts. We got an OK6 for participating (so I now have a four ship Orion squadron) and I picked up my Federation Command Cruiser (I thought I'd emailed Matt about it but I probably forget).

It was very good to get out of the house, as I've only just returned to work (on my third attempt and I did turn up bleeding from a head wound) as I've got an all clear on my MRI and all my aches and pains (which are much better as people who've seen me walking around and standing up and things can attest) are caused by a vitamin D deficiency, which is something I'll get better from with treatment, though the cause is still unknown.

So thanks Matt for organising it and everyone for playing, and we'll do it again some time soon.

 

[John Wall]

My battle reports, apologies for forgetting names and fleet details, I'm terrible with names!

Game one

Charles Listers Klingons: C7, D6,F5
I took two D5s and a D6
Terrain: deep empty space...

This was rescue, but mostly became a stand off firing match over the objective at long range. I concentrated on killing the C7 and sitting on the objective, whilst watching disrupted fire pass straight through a D5s shields. This ship sank with all hands on turn seven, and on turn eight Charles sent his C7 forwards to claim the objective, but exposed his flank in doing so. As it was badly battered by the preceeding turns fire, it was quickly destroyed, giving me a slight edge in ships destroyed, plus the objective for a 17-3 victory.

Game two
Perfidious Romulans: KC9R, Sparrowhawk and Royalhawk (or something very similar).
My list: C8, two D6's and an F5

The terrain on this table was important, a dust cloud on my left handside allowed for a stealthy deployment and a planet and moon system on my opponents side to my right.

With only four objectives on the table this was always a game likely to end in a draw. I lost the setup initiative so setup to challenge each objective. My opponent (whose name I sadly forget), chose to challenge for the two left hand objectives, pretty much guaranteeing them by dint of the weight of plasma he could bring to bear.

The first turn decided the game. I grabbed the two uncontested objectives and ran off the board with those, hiding in the dust clouds with my other ships. The Romulans did the same. The only moment of not was when the Romulans dreadnought fired it's plasma on the D6 hiding in the clouds only to see it survive without even being crippled!

Result, draw. Couldn't claim it was the greatest game, but not because of my opponent (who was fine), it's just the way this scenario is set up.

Game three
Tim Klingons: two C7's, a C8 and two FD7's
Mine: see the above two lists
Terrain: a couple of asteroid fields placed centrally

This turned into a game of "Disruptors at Dawn" as we both stood off and fired at range, with only the final turn being significant as Tim pushed a C7 around an asteroid field anchoring my flank into the waiting guns of my F5, well, that was the plan. In fact my brave little F5 was crippled in one round of shooting and didn't do much back...

In the central fight, I picked on a couple of his ships (a C7 which withdrew rather than get killed) and an FD7. Tim picked on a D5. Again the key action occurred in the last turn. My D5 was nearly crippled, so I decided to close blast doors and pray. He shot me up but failed to do the one more point of damage to cripple the ship (thank you saving throws!). In return, I only just did enough damage to cripple the FD7 and only manged this on the last throw of the game!

A win by the narrowest of narrow margins and a great game.

Game four
The big one! Again I can't remember names...
Playing Romulans. I can't remember the fleet correctly but something like two KC9R, one Condor, two royalhawks, two KRCs, two sparrow hawks and a KF5R.
My list: all of the above plus a second C8, three D5W and another F5.
Terrain: as game two.

With lots of crits waiting to be fixed, both fleets held off until about turn six before engaging.

Most of my fleet hid in the dust cloud (clearly the D6 from game two had gatherd valuable intel on this dust cloud), with three ships out on either flank.

He didn't advance his dreadnoughts, I'm not sure why, possibly the pre-game damage was too severe. He pushed five ships towards my three ships on the right, who backed off and destroyed a Royalhawk at range. At this point I swarmed forward to attack this knot of ships, which would probably guarantee a second Romulans destroyed that turn and a major initiative advantage which would enable me to control the engagement. My opponent choose to concede at 17-3 in my favour. (entirely his choice, he would have taken some of my ships but would loose ships faster than he could kill me).

Final placing: second, very much to my surprise given how close all do my games were.

It was a great weekend, good opponents and I'll be back for the next one!

 

[Da Boss]

Having managed to contract a summer cold in the days leading up to the tourney I was not looking forward to getting up at 5am to start the journey - Matt can we have a 10am start next time!??

So having dosed up we set off, got some breakfast on the way and arrived just in time for the games!

Game One - against John - 7-13 loss
So no terrain and a fellow Klingon fleet meant that speed and agility would play little part. My disruptor fire was proving more deadily - and on this occassion Close Blast Doors working well (I like it for smaller Klingon ships as its the shield penetration hits that really hurt). I killed one D5 and the D6 was hurt, so got stupidly overconfident and casually cruised past the remaining D5 with my damaged C7 - very very stupid and it cost me the game. Good fun - lots of time to chat about tactics and stuff

Game Two - Ben - 0-20 loss
I thought I was feeling bad - but Ben was in a much worse way however he had actually bothered to think about this scenario - which I confess I had not done and consequently after he grabed 3 objectives I conceded to give him a 20 -0 - a well deserved one - he played out his plan perfectly and with aplomb - great player and we had a good chat afterwards about various stuff.
It was not a great scenario to be honest for a tournement as most players just eneded up with a quick draw.

Game three - Alan - 3-17 loss
Back down to table 5 and still feeling like C&%P but boyed up by the firendly nature of the event and a good lunch time chat about a range of stuff. Alan had two Dreadnoughts to my one and it proved important with again little Terrain to take advantage of. We exchanged fire at range and a suprising number of my ships survived his uncanny Drones and in a reversal of my first game - shield penetrating weapons fire. A Desrved win for Alan - although I think he might have tabled me if he had been a little more aggreessive

Game four - 3-17 loss
hmm down to bottom table and a game with a very nice guy who was new to the game. But first we rolled for the damage inflicted on the way and my ships took a hammering. Three Heavy Cruisers (!) were immediately crippled (2 D7C's and a D5W) as was a F5 giving my opponent about 500pts before we started. We did a bit of repairing and slowly moved towards each other firing and hoping for the penetrating hits to finish already damaged ships. Again good chat and enjoyable game and stuff blew uio - especially one the last turn.
I tend to agree that it was a very random scenario for a tournament - epsecially since the game could decide the winner / looser.

My thanks to Matt/MGP for putting it on and a excellent bunch of guys for playing

Shame there was no Orion dancing girls - maybe next year...............

 

[MongooseMatt]

Matt can we have a 10am start next time!??

Not if you want four games in a day

 

[Ben2]

If we can crash on someone's floor in the Swindon area, or even Bristol or Oxford, then we can make the early start without issue.

Admittedly I'd like to not be getting up at 5 and leaving before 6.