Firestorm Armada AAR - Capture the Station

Ziggy and I got to play a game of Firestorm Armada recently and I've put together the AAR. This was my first outing with the Relthoza and Zig used his ever-present Terran / Hawker ships. We played with Patrol-level groups, just under 800 points each. Since we've been playing the scenarios in the order presented by the MRB, it was time for "Capture the Station." Ziggy chose to defend.

I had a group of Drone frigates in shunt reserve. A Terran battleship was also waiting in the wings. The station is north-west of the planetoid in the picture. My goal was to capture and hold it, made somewhat more difficult because it is a "fully operational battle station."

My carrier. Interceptors have just deployed. The bombers will stay aboard for a little while.

After a turn, the Terrans are looking quite outnumbered.

My gunships decloak, shunt and soften up the space station. I was hoping to reduce the crew or defenses and ended up scoring a Reactor Overload for 4 points of damage! I'd nearly destroyed it - it's only got 5 hull points.

My Drones arrive, a bit disorganized, but in a great spot to smack the Hawker carrier! The human commander shook his fist and cursed.

The spidery noose tightens. Note the position of my gunships (the group on the right).

Yup. rolled three sixes for distance. Right into the gas cloud. The Hawker carrier still got shot up badly, its shields down from the earlier strike by the frigates.

Ziggy's dice, which until this point had been decidedly cool, "woke the fuck up" and his two remaining cruisers finished off two frigate squadrons in the greatest display of Terran shooting ever witnessed. Very effective nukes helped.

Papa Grande decloaked and spun around, presenting a broadside to the Hawker carrier. In a big flash, the yellow eyesore was no more. Importantly, its Interceptors would no longer keep my Bombers bottled up.

The SS Fun Ruiner showed up finally and turned the dial up to "Pain." Feh. Oh, the Gunships ended up in the position seen above as a result of a second 18-inch battle shunt! Yup three sixes AGAIN!

First the Gunships then the Carrier + Escorts assault the station. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! 

But just then, the yay-hoo Terran admiral decides to fire nukes into the Escort directly ahead. The resulting explosion of course destroyed the Station. So much for defending it. At least they lost the four points when I captured it.

A bit more shooting and the game finally ended after turn 7. Here's a shot of my casualties. It's a lot. The final score was 4-3 in favor of me! A lousy draw.

As usual, a quite entertaining game of FSA. I really like the Relthoza and am very happy that I chose them instead of some other "bad guy" fleet. They're very different than my Alliance of Kurak fleet and offer a significantly different experience. The Gunships are the bee's knees and flitting around the battlefield with Shunt Matrix is ridiculously entertaining. As rumored on the SG forums, Relthoza Tier-3 (small) ships are very good. The light frigates are great torpedo boats and the Drones and Nidus are damn fine as well. Looking forward to the next for sure.