Star Fleet Battles AAR: Return of the Lizard (King)

We finally got back together for the sequel to last August's SFB game down in Brunswick. What can I say, it was a busy Fall and Winter. Last scenario ended with the asteroid field pirate base in the possession of the ISC. They'd set up in the facilities and taken them over as their own. A Gorn convoy carrying troops to the Romulan front passed nearby and sensing an opportunity for revenge, the convoy Captain ordered his ships to attack the base.

Our Gorn Captains were Mike B, piloting two Gorn COM troops carriers, Ziggy with a DD and David D flying an FF. The ISC were run by Mark J driving an LCA previous-generation Heavy Cruiser and me flying a PF half-flotilla. The Gorn mission was to capture a small PF base before ISC reinforcements arrived (no later than turn 4). The ISC simply had to prevent this from happening.

My PFs engaged early. I sent one head-on into the Gorn group and the other two around an asteroid group. The solo ship did a fine job of getting the Gorn to use up some torpedoes and fire phasers. It did however get pounded by a couple of F-Torps for its trouble. It survived that thrashing and still had enough power, phasers and a single torpedo left to be useful.

The other pair of PFs correctly guessed that the torpedo launched at them from David's FF was a pseudo. I felt good about that. To me his timing seemed poor - to waste his only fully-charged torpedo on me so early seemed hasty - it just smelled like a bluff and indeed was.

So by the end of turn 1 we had a real mess set up. Mark's LCA was hovering near the base, the Gorn Commando ships were also very close to the target. A great number of shuttles loaded with Gorn troops were making their way to the base. Zig's DD turned away from the traffic jam. David's Frigate was being pursued by my two intact PFs (although it was a bluff of my own - I was really after one of the Commando ships).

Those two Gorn torpedoes sent towards the LCA were indeed pseudos. Mark unfortunately used up all his phasers firing at them...

... And had nothing to deal with the two real torpedoes sent shortly afterwards in turn 2. The gloves were now off and there would be no more subterfuge! My PFs ran the gauntlet of shuttle phaser-fire and unloaded four type-Fs into the back end of one of the troop carriers. I was also able to shoot down a couple of the assault shuttles. The troop carrier was severely damaged but still flyable. Ah well, it was a strong effort from my crew.

Not long afterwards, PF #1 (which had taken major damage in the previous turn) and PF #2 which had taken all the shuttle and ship phaser fire were both blown to smithereens leaving me with just one small ship that really needed to recharge weapons.

Mark's LCA was set to a ponderous speed and couldn't turn quickly enough to keep up with the Commando ships which managed to evade his plasma arcs. Mark and I agreed, out of frustration and the desire to kill something that the Frigate needed to be hulled out.

Two G's and an F did the job well. The Frigate died swiftly. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, many Gorn were being transported to the base via shuttles and transporters. The fighting at the end of turn 2 ended up going in our favor! We killed two squads while the attackers only killed one.

 Mark and Ziggy

David and Mike

Turn 3, Mark and I decided to run off for a breather. My PF isn't geared for a barrage of shuttle fire and needed to re-load. Mark's CA had lost two shields but was otherwise in OK condition. Heavy ships can take a beating...

We rolled out the ground combat at the end of 3. The ISC forces were wiped out. Mark and I had planned to destroy the base during turn 4 to prevent capture but it was now too late, the Gorn had taken it and there was little sense in carrying on.

A fine game of Star Fleet! It was set up to favor the Gorn to a degree, so the outcome made sense. That said, it was a lot of fun getting to that conclusion. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and liked the scenario - that's all it takes to make me happy after putting in the effort. Hopefully we can get in another game in April if the quarantine doesn't have us locked down. Stay safe, be well and good gaming.