Firestorm Armada AAR: Ambush!

Ziggy and I dug out our Firestorm Armada ships Saturday afternoon for a return to the Storm Zone. I used my Relthoza, while Zig commanded his Terrans (with Hawker allies). We set the points at 1000, but both came in around 950 or so. I really need to pick up some reinforcements for the Relthoza.

We played the sixth scenario in the MRB - Ambush! I won the roll and chose to be the attacker - ambushing the Terran fleet as they transited across the map.

Our deployments. This is what happens when you don't play often and aren't super-familiar with your army list. Those Light Frigates should have swapped positions with the other Drone frigates in the upper right behind the asteroids, given their weapons. The Lights are long-range snipers, whereas the Drones are close-range brawlers... oh well..

Some newly-painted Gilas, to be used as Heavy Cruisers.

Things started pretty well, snapping up a couple of Terran frigates from a long way off with torpedoes.

The debt starts to be repaid with one of the Hive's escorts being destroyed and another damaged.

Turn two - my Nidus frigates reveal themselves and unleash a barrage at the unlucky squadron, but miss terribly. I should have also attacked with that fighter squadron they deployed. I was saving it for a bigger target though.

Some filthy Terran ship saw fit to fire nuclear weapons at the Nidus squadron. Ziggy rolls a natural Yahtzee on the shot.

Yeah.

Hidden squadrons have to clump up a lot when they reveal, making them juicy nuke targets. 

Starting turn 3, things were looking pretty blah for the spiders. I was holding the Gunships tight, hoping to shunt behind the battleship can catch it from behind.

The carrier's fighters finish off the last frigate of unpainted epoxy squadron.

On the far edge, the other Terran frigate group located my light frigates.

That's evil back there behind the glass.

I had to move my gunship squadron before the Apollo. They performed very poorly. The battleship punished them. The first of many "PD Disabled" crit effect markers is placed on one of my ships.

I didn't take any pics, but I got vengeance for all sorts of past wrongs with the new Heavy Cruisers. The slid forward, following the red lines, then pasted two Herpes, I mean Hermes-class cruisers. Double crit one. Double crit two. TWO DOUBLE CRITS! Two dead cruisers. The Heavies just made Ziggy's list.

My Gunships however continue to suffer shame and humiliation as the Apollo blasts one and a fighter group kills another. Interesting how this other one ALSO has a "PD Disabled" crit marker. I swear, Z rolled a "5" on the crit chart at least six times.

Bombers gonna bomb.The carrier and it's little buddies combine to finish off the cruiser squadron.

The big ships start to converge.

Fighters and firepower kill off one of my Heavies. Note the "PD Disabled" marker.

The Hive puts a world-class broadside into the Hawker carrier. The remaining Heavy also pastes it. Four damage and it's rocking two corrosion markers! Hehehe.

After five turns, we called it a day. We were tired and ready for dinner. The final battle log was at 8-6, in favor of the Terrans. They did get a frigate into my deployment zone at the very end.

My second game with the Relthoza was very enjoyable. We need to play more often because there are a lot of little things we both forget about simply because it's like 4 months between games of FSA. These two fleets fought to a similar draw the last time we played and appear to be very well-matched against each other. One of these days I'll get another Tier 1 unit for the spiders - right now it's a toss up - Battlecruisers, Base Station or Assault Carrier (group). Those Heavy Cruisers are ridiculous. They'll certainly be a regular.