Psychoholic Slag: Star Fleet Battles AAR
The Space Cadets reconvened in Brunswick on Saturday afternoon for a bit of the old Star Fleet Battles. The list of attendees changed at the 11th hour, so the choice of scenarios was a bit unusual for us - this month we played the "Planet Crusher" monster scenario with the three of us players combining our wits and fortune against a massive 430-point planet-eating monstrosity. I selected the three ships of the WYN Auxillary - a captured Lyran Destroyer (David), a captured Kzinti Frigate (Mike) and a fresh off the lot "Klingon" KF4 (yours truly).
We made it look easy. In reality, Mike's ship had been pretty well canoed by the worm and David's was pretty beaten up as well. The three hits I took were 10-25-10 for a total of five internals. "Big whoop" I hear you say. The other two each took two 35-point hits each as well as third less nasty but not insignificant hits. We did spend a considerable amount of time planning and discussing between turns - not doing so would have almost certainly resulted in a least one ship destroyed, if not a worse result. Post-game analysis revealed that we had a bit of an advantage with our three ships in that we had triple the opportunities to slow the monster's progress and our three ships were able to dump out a prodigious amount of firepower.
"The Planet Crusher" is a damn fine scenario and made for a great afternoon of gaming. It is quite unusual that the three of us are on the same side of any game so this was a very enjoyable change of pace.
Here we are early on, charging hard into battle! The circle token indicate "danger areas" such as the 6-hex-radius around the planet we were trying to save and where we expected the monster to go and his 6-hex bubble. FWIW, the monster can only detect targets within six hexes and can only be fired at by ships within six hexes.
My first encounter with the beast. I was quite fortunate and only took 10 damage out of a max of 35. Both Mike and David took 35-point blasts from the Unhappy Sock of Doom straight away.
A little later ... we've started marking the 6-hex danger zone around the crusher permanently now.
Later still, I think perhaps turn 5. Dave and the Kzinti set up a Planet Crusher sammich. The Klingon was secretly hoping for the ESG bubble to inadvertently thump the Kzinti. Alas, it was not to happen, though Mike and Dave did put some big hurtin' on the doomsday creature.
Yeah.... they got away with it...
To start turn 6 we were in great shape.Mik,e and David had just thumped the crud out of the monster and my KF4 was recharged and ready to make a third run.
And old stinky only had 35 hits left, still a long way from the planet.
Again fortune smiled upon me, only taking 10 damage to the front shield on my way in. I then gave him three disruptor shots at range 1 for 15 damage and four phaser-1 shots at range 0 with these dice rolls.
For the benefit of those of you who aren't terribly familiar with SFB, see the detailed explanation above.
Scratch one bad neighbor. Property values in this sector remain up for another year.
We made it look easy. In reality, Mike's ship had been pretty well canoed by the worm and David's was pretty beaten up as well. The three hits I took were 10-25-10 for a total of five internals. "Big whoop" I hear you say. The other two each took two 35-point hits each as well as third less nasty but not insignificant hits. We did spend a considerable amount of time planning and discussing between turns - not doing so would have almost certainly resulted in a least one ship destroyed, if not a worse result. Post-game analysis revealed that we had a bit of an advantage with our three ships in that we had triple the opportunities to slow the monster's progress and our three ships were able to dump out a prodigious amount of firepower.
"The Planet Crusher" is a damn fine scenario and made for a great afternoon of gaming. It is quite unusual that the three of us are on the same side of any game so this was a very enjoyable change of pace.
50 damage in a turn? Now that is some serious damage! Seems like a fun scenario, and fortunately no ships were destroyed.
ReplyDeleteYeah, those ships really can kick out the firepower, especially at point blank range! I think the scenario needs a bit of adjustment with more than one ship - a 33% hit point bonus would have made it much more difficult and we'd have almost certainly lost a ship. I imagine that once the first domino falls, the rest follow in short order.
Delete