StarDust Ground and Star Fleet Battles

I was able to get in some quality time with the ol' dice bag this weekend. Zig and I put SDG through its paces once again. The results of the play test were very positive and although we found two things that need specific clarification in the rules, everything was solid. On the other hand, we found a big ol' problem with the scenario which will be fixed shortly.

No full AAR, but I do have some pics.

Same scenario as last time. You can see immediately what needs to be fixed.
1. Enforce a 24" bubble for the ambushers. Ziggy started some of his troops right on top of mine.
2. I should have entered from the other corner. Move cover. My guys were very exposed right off the bat.

My small mechs smashed a hover tank in close combat. Quite a firefight develops on that side of the table.

Zig's mech goes full-Ginsu on an already beleaguered squad of Dogs.

My tanks become the next target of Stampy McSlice. His infantry squad has taken up a good position on the hill.

My last tank wises up and heads where he is needed - supporting the infantry advance. This also puts a lot of distance between the tank and that evil sword-swinging robot.

The hover tanks' plasma has a tough time finding its mark against the side of my barn with tracks.

My tank moves forward - I'm still efforting a result here - and the godforsaken turret immobilizes it with a missile. Gah! The tank gets some revenge and destroys the turret. 

In the end, the Dogs got wiped. Primarily, they were in a terrible position to begin with. I'm chalking much of the poor performance up to stupid terrain placement. Live n' learn.

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On to Sunday!

Sunday was our monthly Star Fleet Battles game. The scenario was a follow-up to the previous game which featured a whole bunch of fighters and drones.

Background - After the battle of Omicron Persei VIII, the Orion fighters beat a hasty retreat back to the pickup point. The Lyrans, feeling a bit betrayed by their mercenary allies, sent a Frigate in pursuit. The Federation and Kzintis, whose alliance was a bit more firm, also sent ships to pursue the fleeing pirates. The Orions were only interested in picking up their remaining fighters and getting away.

Although he's got the same goal as the Fed/Kzinti, the Lyran is not allowed to coordinate with them. They are mortal enemies after all.

We pick up in the middle of the action...

The Lyran (the big brown model) and Orion escort LR blast the tar out of each other at point-blank range. The LR caused a bunch of internal damage with its FOUR Ph-1s. (He put Ph-1s in all three option mounts) My carrier is making its way towards the fighters.

The Fed and Kzinti and a wall of drones speeds towards the pirates.

This month's collection of Space Cadets. We weren't expecting Bill, so we had to add a fifth ship for Alan, which unbalanced things a bit in favor of the Orions.

Four fighters tractored! Time to get out of Dodge! I've also sent s bucket of drones in pursuit of the Lyran. The Fed is breathing down my neck. The Orion CVL has jack shit for rear weapons.

Kzinti drone #33 kills one of the Z-Ys I have in tow and the Fed knocks down my #3 shield and caused a handful of internals with photons and phasers.

And then we stopped taking pictures.

The next turn I pushed the speed up to 26 and headed for home. James sniped one of the F-18s I had in tow, crippling it, which in turn killed it via death-drag. Another F-18 was killed by Mike I guess because when it was all said and done, I'd gotten away with one fighter (Z-Y) and a ship in decent condition. Alan's LR was in poor shape but survived. The Kzinti and Lyran ships both got pounded, particularly the Lyran. The Fed had a clean sheet. James could easily have killed off the fighters but just wasn't thinking about it when he made his attack run.

Bill's over-aggression with the Lyran was his undoing. Alan and I turned towards him, not wanting to close with the Fed's photons and Kzinti drones. Bill had set his speed to 30 which put him on top of the LR right away. If he'd been a bit more cautious and headed down field I think he'd have had an easier time.

Good game all, I enjoyed it tremendously!

Comments

  1. Nice blog, sharp pics!

    Maybe you should add tags to your posts, especially for the Stardust rules you're developing? i.e, so that I can check out the concepts that you're working on without searching post by post. :-)


    Noted your occupation; (unhappily) spending my Saturday doing the stupid (monthly) documentation for MU-2 Objective 6 today - at least 10 screenshots just to prove an obvious and key EHR functionality is "still enabled", plus tweaking my system so that the EHR gives me credit under PQRS for what I'm already doing. Stupid government EHR programs - well meaning but far too intrusive, time consuming, costly and picky!

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    1. I didn't see your comments until just now! For some reason, I don't get emails every time comments are left - only occasionally. Thank goodness I'm not our EHR Analyst - Meaningful Use is just a gigantic headache. I'll stick with server and backups, thank you very much!

      I'll see about tagging the posts - I'd never given it much consideration but it makes sense.

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