Sunday StarDust

Mike and I played my space combat game StarDust up at Morningstar Games this afternoon. It was a replay of a scenario Zig and I played a month or so ago. Mike chose the Red Fleet and was trying to keep my ships from exiting the table.

Our deployment:

I was Orange and trying to exit as many of my ships off the far edge as I could.

Things got bloody right away - we each lost a destroyer in no time and I also accounted for one of the Red frigates.

Mike outsmarted himself, trying to get a load of rear centerline shots on my remaining destroyer and cruiser. As it turns out, his frigate can't perform that trick - it only has forward-firing weapons. Either way, my cruiser got dinged and his destroyer got pummeled. 

I spun the rear frigate squadron around to get a few kills on my pursuers. Mike's heavy cruisers were getting too close for comfort - I really needed to get my ships moving.

My cruiser's escort does a fine job of escorting and soaks a massive volley from one of the Red cruisers. Sadly, one of the crits it takes is a "Massive Explosions" which prevents it from moving in the next turn and pretty well pins my cruiser close to it, since they count as being in a squadron. My frigates that stayed behind get to work on one of the Red cruisers.

In no time, my destroyer has been blown apart and my frigates are disappearing. I did put some serious damage on the one heavy cruiser I was firing at, but alas, there was no kill at the end of the rainbow.

The forward frigate squadron is doing well for itself and the cruiser does its best to make tracks. The sacrificial frigates dive into the protection of the asteroids.

The combined firepower of two Red Fleet cruisers cripple my heavy cruiser and force a morale test. The captain surrenders, not wanting to have his crew killed by another volley.

My forward squadron is going to get away! All that's left to stop them are two puny fast frigates! My two frigates in the asteroid field are dispatched by massed particle cannon fire from the bloodthirsty Red mob.

My frigates get a final volley at the fast frigates and severely damage both of them but didn't kill either.

I managed to get five small ships off the board, a sad defeat for the Orange Fleet. Mike and I discussed a couple of changes for this scenario which we'll test out next time we play it. Either way, it was a good game and we both had a really good time.