AAR - Star Fleet Battles September Game

The September 2015 iteration of the Space Cadets' SFB game was a classic. We met at Pizza Hut this time, across the street from McDonald's in Brunswick since Mickey D's was really busy.

The game itself was the continuation of last month's game in which the four of us, driving an assortment of Orion ships vied for a McGuffin on the wreck of an old passenger liner, the Titanic IV. Last month we got through four turns and had plenty of boarding parties on the Titanic. We pick up the action aboard!

Turn 1 action - Mike's black troops and Dave's yellows mix it up. James' guys were the reds.

Turn 3. Mike has found the McGuffin and is holed-up in the bridge. Everyone is pushing through the doors and my second group of boarders lands directly on the bridge. Much pew-pew.

Turn 4. The forces have thinned considerably. Mike still has the gizmo.

On with the space portion of the game!

Our starting positions. Mike's ship was nearly a clean sheet after the previous game, the rest of us had serious shield issues and/or internals.

I'd launched my fighter on 5/1 but Mike killed it straight away. Then the first bit of real excitement got underway...

Mike and I had gone real easy on each other last game. Since his boarding parties had been wiped I guess he was kind of grudgey now.

He placed Plas-F (4) as you see, then placed (N) heading F, out of arc. He noticed the incorrect arc, said out loud "Oh screw it," and changed its heading, and obviously its target since he couldn't fire at David. I was to move on the next impulse and assumed at least one torp was aimed at me. I fired some phasers at (4), which turned out to be the right choice. It still crunched my #6 pretty easily.

The second plasma continued on to James who thrashed it with his phasers. It impacted but turned up a pseudo! Trickery!

James and I fire at "Captain I'm going to piss off everyone here."

My plasma-D hit, but at a reduced strength. Another fun development was that my ESG which had been up for a few impulses got a great bump on James, killing his towed shuttle and causing some internals.

Lacking ready phasers, Mike tractored James' drone.

End of turn 5 - I'd dropped my last 3 BPs on the Titanic and had a commanding position on it!

Lacking good judgement, Mike forgets to power a tractor beam for turn 6. Instant Classic! The drone goes through his down #6. 12 internals.

Mike's F-16 pushes out a DFD at me. I killed it with a Ph-1.

I returned the favor shortly as Mike gets some more plasma love.

I HET (risking a breakdown) and fire off another Plas-D and blast the F-16 into oblivion.

Mike returns the favor and shuts my #5 down. I take some more internals too.

David dropped a shield to send BPs onto the Titanic. I fire my remaining Ph-1 through the hole but roll a miserable 6.

The end of 6 - things are still going well for my boys on the Titanic!

To start turn 7, James pushes a drone through my down #1. I whump him with two D's. Both our ships just get hammered.

Turn 7 involved a lot of maneuver and very little combat. The battle on the Titanic was still raging.

Turn 8 begins with a big bang, as Mike follows an F-torp into James and empties the barrels at range-0. James' ship explodes. The explosion takes down Mike's #1 and causes an internal. Nice.

There was little other combat during turn 8. I wheeled my wreck back to the freighter, figuring everyone else was as in as bad a shape as me. My boarding parties finally won the combat and captured the Golden Goose!

Booya.

David was in position to shoot at me a bit on my way off the map, but his very slow speed meant he'd have had a terrible time catching me as I streaked away. I was declared the victor!

On to the gore...

The Final Elvis at the end of 8. One working phaser, two functional Plasma-Ds. Two repaired boxes on the #1. My ship was a damn disaster. Captain K'runch will have to spend the money he'll get for the Golden Goose on a new ship.

David's ship in remarkably good condition but very low on power.

Mike's ship. No front shields and a good amount of internals. He bailed during turn 8.

James' ship. 

The game was terrific. The boarding combat fight was a lot of fun. All four of us were spreading the pain and the whole thing was just a mess. For all of our hesitation to "get stuck in" last game, we had no problem "flying 'em like they're rented" this time around.

Our campaign on the left side of the sector has been concluded. Next time, we're heading eastward and will start involving some different races in our SFB games. Until then remember, you're not done until your ExDam track is done!