December Star Fleet Battles - Jailbreak!

The Space Cadets met in Brunswick, GA on Sunday afternoon for another fun-filled game of SFB. We had a new player join this month, David Drake of Jacksonville. We now have two Davids in our ranks. In case you're wondering, that's lucky. Hi David, and thanks for joining!

The scenario was part of our new narrative campaign set in and around the Bundag Asteroid Field (my non-canon creation). Last game, David's pirate captain got himself captured by some Romulan reservists. This month's installment tells the tale of Captain Jalad's escape.

Makeel had been waiting for days for instructions on what to do next. The convoy raid had been a bust. A crewman from a tug that had just pulled in gave him the note. Black Sun was sending a ship to retrieve Jalad and the other employees with him. The plan wasn't simple. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The pick-up ship would slide in close to Twelve, and idle. At 0300 hours, the cartel members on Twelve were to break out Jalad and any other privateers in the brig and then the entire group was to head to a skiff waiting at the dock. Once aboard the skiff, they'd be given the coordinates to find the cloaked pick-up ship. Everyone on the skiff would be transported to the get-away vessel at which point they'd make their way to safety.

Things went sour just after the breakout from the brig. Makeel had been shot and killed, as had two security guards. Alarms were sounded. The pirates made it to the waiting skiff and got moving as quickly as they could. All ships in the area were instructed to pursue and intercept the fleeing criminals. The nearest reserve ship - Bundag 131 was also called in to assist.

The game picks up at this point.

Orion (David S)
     Security Skiff - B12-01
     Light Raider - Slippery Eel (cloak, 1 Ph-1, 2 Plas-F)

Romulan / Civilian (Christian, Mike, David D)
     Salvage Tug - Gerk's Deep Space Towing, Ship #55 (Christian)
     Free Trader - Loot & Pillage (David)
     Small Prospecting Freighter - Attemptare (Mike)
     Harbor Tug - Potestas (Mike)
     Gladiator SF Fighter - Pilum (David)
     Admin Shuttle - 1522b (Mike)

The Romulans also get a Small Auxiliary Cruiser (RRSS 131) at the beginning of turn 3. (Mine baby, all mine!)

Our starting positions. The transparent circles indicate asteroid hexes. The civilian rabble is pretty widely scattered to start with. We don't know exactly the LR is. David has secretly documented the pick-up hex. We have to just guess at where he's going. David's goal is to exit the LR off the near board edge. We simply need to stop him.

My ride, Gerk's Deep Space Towing, Ship #55. It's got a 360 Phaser-2! That's a big deal with the junk we're flying this game.

The end of turn 1. The stolen skiff was making a bee-line for my right side. The rest of us try to pursue, knowing time is short. The skiff had fired a drone at Mike's Harbor Tug earlier, but it had been tractored and swung into an asteroid hex, killing it the awesome way.

Another drone is launched, then in no time, the Slippery Eel is revealed! The escaped pirates are transported off the skiff and the engines of the Light Raider roar to life.

The brave Romulan pilot of the Pilum send a torpedo towards the Orion ship but is fired at in return. That's an F-torp!

The inevitable. First Lieutenant Graz earns a medal the hard way.

By the end of the second turn, the foolhardy crew of the Free Trader get right on top of the Orion and knocks a big chunk out of its #2.

Then, David made the game difficult for us. He cloaked. GAH! The Slippery Eel lives up to its reputation.Luckily for the good guys, the 131 and a couple other ships managed to retain their lock-ons. That's the 131 streaking towards the action.

Mike's Harbor Tug and Prospector (which actually retained their lock-ons) slapped tractors on the Orion scum slowing it down considerably. Once close enough, the reserve light cruiser fired off a type-F. Sadly, it missed due to the cloak. 

A little ways back of the action, the boys from Gerk's took an Orion shuttle behind the woodshed.

Turn 5 and David was a mere five hexes from glory! He dropped the cloak giving himself a lot more power and gunned it. 131 and Potestas kept their tractors on the Slippery Eel which bloodied the nose of 131 with its last Plasma-F, ruining my plasma launcher which was almost ready to fire again! In the end though, David had put just enough power into movement to allow his ship to exit the map, even with two enemies in tow! Victory to the David and the Orions!

What started out as an excuse to put a bunch of never-used ships into one scenario turned into a terrific battle! I couldn't happier with the balance and the way it played out. David, flicking the cloak off and on messed us up big time. It saved his ass mid-game, then shutting it off after we'd taken our best shots, he was still in the clear and able to get away. A Light Raider is usually a junker, but was the top dog by a wide margin in this fight. It was all we could do to jump on the LR with tractors and slow it down as best we could while plinking away with our Ph-3s.

Thanks for the game guys! I hope we can get one in during January.