Firestorm Armada AAR - The Civil War Continues

Zig and I got in our second game of FSA yesterday afternoon. The Kurak Civil War is still simmering apparently, as my Tarakian / Terquai / Xelocian force faced his group of Terran and Hawker ships. Our forces were evenly matched at 880 points, though not perfectly "by the book" as we both only fielded one of the two T3 squadrons required "by the book." Screw the book.

We played the Escalating Engagement scenario which requires 1/3 of the opposing forces, including all big ships to be in reserve to start with. My battleship, the ShadeMaker, and Xelocian Frigates started in reserve, whereas the Terran battleship Ajax and the Hawker carrier Joshua Schultz were Z's only two reserve elements.

 The table layout and terrain

Our deployment zones

 My Kurak fleet - cruisers a-go-go and Tarls.

The filthy Terran oppressors.

Early on, the Terran destroyers smack one of my cruisers. The opposing fleets generally begin a clockwise rotation.

I turned my Sulans toward the Terrans. Apparently they were content to play the long-ranged game so I thought it wise to rush them as quickly as a squadron of Tarakian cruisers can rush anything. You can see that the destroyers' nukes have caused some real grief for me early on.

A frigate succumbs to a massive torpedo volley as a cruiser takes a pounding from the gravity weapons of Bullock Squadron. 

The Tarkian fleet seizes the initiative, closing again with the Terrans and accounting for one of the Hermes cruisers. Their torpedoes overwhelm another frigate. The asteroids will hopefully help the Sulans keep their noses clean.

That worked well! The Terrans target the nearest Sulan but don't make an impression. I think the frigates' torpedoes managed to knock the last hull point off my most damaged cruiser about this time too, because it isn't in any further photos.

The Terquai cruisers smash a Hermes from a long way off. Corrosive torpedoes cause a decompression!

Again, my Sulans close and cause havoc. A double-crit on an undamaged cruiser eliminate it. Their torpedo volley against the damaged cruiser is ineffective. You can also see that the Terran battleship has finally arrived! Uh Oh! The Tarakian cruisers may have over-played their hand.

The Terquai cruisers approach the destroyers, damaging one with their fore energy beams.

The end of turn four sees the last Terran cruiser succumb to the corrosive effects of the Terquai torpedoes.

The Terrans take the initiative but the Ajax has a poor performance, only killing one of Bullock Squadron's ships. My Tarakians fail their command roll and become disordered, but still manage to destroy the last two frigates! You can see the Joshua Schultz has just arrived as well.

I lose a Tarl as the squadron tries to shortcut its way through an asteroid field, desperately trying to get into the battle before it ends. They still manage to thump one of the destroyers.

Staring down two awfully big cannons, the Sulans wreak havoc before the lights go out. They smash the Schultz with their gravity weapons.

Another blasted asteroid takes out a Tarakian frigate. Are you kidding me? 50% of my casualties to this point are from poor driving. At least the rest of the squadron finishes off one of the destroyers. Finally.

Z's man of the match.

The carrier breaks it off in one of the cruisers. Cyberweapons knock out the PD so the bombers can pounce unopposed. Boom goes the dynamite.

Not to be outdone, the battleship targets the last of the cruisers, wrecking it. The Sulans are finally gone.

The game ended after turn 6. Here is the final positioning. My Alliance fleet had won, 4-2. You can see my poor, slow battleship inching its way forward. I was pushing it to get a grav slingshot off the planetoid...

That was a mighty fun battle, and much different from the last outing. My cruisers were impressive, handling a quarter of the tabletop by themselves. They were in big trouble once the big guys arrived, but by then it was too late to matter much. I was concerned that I'd gotten too aggressive early, and maybe I did, but I still had a large reserve component left to contend with the remains of the Terran fleet, so it worked out well.

 We're having fun with FSA and are both looking forward to another game. Good Gaming!

Flying Machines

I got through the six Blazing Sun Tetsubo Interceptors in no time! My Japanese fliers do have a very simple color scheme so it's no wonder. They look nice and will be a really cool addition to the stuff I've already got.

The weather this evening isn't cooperating so no outdoor pictures. I've got some tanks and robots that need tending to now.

More Painting

When life gives you non-gaming weekends, paint! Actually, I couldn't do that either since I was out-of-town in Atlanta. Either way, when we got back home yesterday afternoon I finally got the Blazing Sun Bunker Complex that I received waaaay back on December 3, 2014. A mere 222 days to complete one model. Not shabby. I did in fact paint it twice. The first time around I was displeased with the results, so it was stripped and redone. Actually, it was stripped, aged for a few months, then re-painted.

Regardless, the Steakhouse of DOOM is now complete!

The camera has a way with finding blemishes, as you all know. I'm just happy to see the thing done. I am really looking forward to slapping it down on the table one of these days for a game. It is very strong and should make an interesting change of pace for us.

Recently Painted Things

I've gotten some some painting work done in the past few days - a couple more Firestorm ships passed on to the storage bins as have some 6mm Space Marines and Orks.

Here are those old GW models...

The herd so far. 

Space Wolves 

Land Raiders and Rhino APCs 

Death Skull ork boyz 

A shmancy banner for da boyz 

Battlewagons and a trakor-kannon 

I've got some Marine land speeders and Ork buggies on the table now. Since I have so many Marines, I'm going to do some up as Dark Angels. The Orks will probably be split between Death Skulls and Blood Axes. I have a ton of Rhinos and Land Raiders that will work fine with an Orky paint-job. The plan is to use these with StarDust Ground.

Here are the Terquai Torpedo Cruisers I finished over the weekend. They're an alliance race and will be part of the Alliance of Kurak fleet I'm putting together.

The yellow was inspired by filthy construction equipment. I love the giant engine blocks on the back. Very cool looking models.

AAR - July Star Fleet Battles Game

I'm not sure if I mentioned it here, but long-time Savannah gaming aficionado Mike Baker moved two hours down the road a few months back to take advantage of a job opportunity. This selfish act has made it difficult to coordinate games for the Space Cadets. I'm kidding of course.
Brunswick, Georgia is about half-way between Savannah and Waycross - a manageable one-hour drive for all parties. David scouted out potential gaming locations and the McDonald's at exit 36 made the short-list. Yesterday, we played our first game of SFB inside an operating McDonald's! We used the small map and counters instead of the usual big map and miniatures. I'm 100% sure that the big setup would have gone over like a lead balloon.

As different as the environment was, the game itself was top-shelf. As a scenario designed by Yours Truly, I couldn't have been happier with how things played out. I struggle as a scenario designer with the issue of "balance." Balance, to me, means "does each side have an equal chance of completing their objective?" In this instance, I hit the nail on the head. With that, on with the battle report!

Year 168

The Hydran / Klingon border

The Klingons had a small battlegroup out for a field-test of their new Mauler weapon. The Firebrand mauler-cruiser suffered a catastrophic systems failure the first time it fired it new wonder-weapon and took itself out of the battle. Well, the Klingons drove off the Hydrans and pushed the stricken cruiser into orbit around a nearby gas giant with the intention of retrieving it shortly. Fleet tug Kronos' Back got the call and made haste to collect the cruiser. The Hydrans of course knew there was a broken-down cruiser nearby with some new-fangled weapon mounted on it and sent out ships to hunt for it. Black Horse and Jager II found the tug and cruiser soon after they'd paired up. The battle was about to resume.

David and I flew the Hydrans. I was using a Lancer destroyer and David had a Hunter frigate. We made "getting into the same hex and flying as one" a priority early on. Hydran weapons are very strong and equally short-ranged. It was crucial that we combine out initial volleys onto the same shield to cause as much pain as possible during our first attack run.

Captain Mike wasted no time in launching drones, his favorite part of SFB. He had to get the D6M off the far edge of the map - a 38-hex journey, slowed down by the cruiser he was dragging.

We're much closer now. I've popped out my fighters and Dave and I are towing one each via tractors so they can keep up with us. You can see that two others are starting to lag behind. The initial group of drones had been dealt with but more were of course on the way. That Klingon shuttle under the hand of Git is a scatter-pack.

See, I told you. Mike randomized which fighters the drones of the SP would chase.

We've got a lot of stuff going on here. First, the fighters at the bottom of the picture turned tail and brilliantly dragged the drones over a live shuttle whose phaser completely failed to knock out a drone. The two fighters closer to my ship were both killed by drones when their chaff failed. David's Hunter punched a big hole in the #6 shield of the tug, then made a HET to quickly turn around because his ship had been just crushed by disruptors and phasers on the way in. I think David took out the first of two tractors on his first volley. My Lancer got a solid range-0 volley into the tug but the second tractor hit was not forthcoming.

I plotted a HET for the next turn and took a beating crossing the nose of the tug/cruiser combination but the ship held. Once I got my tail towards the stricken #6, I reversed and fired more phasers into the ship. Again, the final tractor hit was nowhere to be found.

The start of turn 4. Dave's frigate and my lone remaining Stinger-I are in striking distance. I had a long turn-around trip since I'd gotten turned around last turn. Dangerously, I plotted a second HET and risked breakdown to get back in the fight more quickly.

The breakdown roll is passed!

The tug is again beset by little green men. It holds though. Klingon tugs are no joke.

Amazingly, the tug and my destroyer end up on the 42XX row at the end of turn 4. ONE hex of movement, at any point during the game and he'd have been away. The fighter of course stayed in the fight and would lend its last two fusion shots to the carnage.

To begin turn 5, the Klingons and Hydrans blasted away at each other but all that really came of it was that the final tractor damage box was hit very early into the massive 51-point volley from Black Horse and the Firebrand had no way to exit the map. A Hydran victory!

That was a crazy game and very tense. I was really worried that the Hydrans would be severely out-classed but they really held their own against a very powerful opponent. Mike got every drop of utility out of his tug and beat up cruiser. The cruiser still could produce power for its shields and phasers so its seven ph-2s were working for much of the game. Early on, Mike had stashed its power into the batteries so it would be able to keep firing later in the game. Good move there, Mike. David's frigate got picked on early - primarily because Mike figured (rightly) that it would fall apart easily. It hung on long enough to get two shots from its fusion beams and was invaluable in drone defense. My destroyer got brutalized, taking many internals, but I also was able to absorb a ton of damage on the shields - I lost three entire shields - that's getting your money's worth!

Our lovely view of a vacant lot next door. It rained cats and dogs most of the afternoon.

Thanks for the game guys! Looking forward to our next meet-up.

Recently Painted - More Spaceships

I've been painting spaceships and epic space marines and orks this week. The spaceships edged out the little guys for time and got done first. Here are four Xelocian frigates for Firestorm Armada.

These ships have such a cool profile - they're like little pistols of doom! The "Bullet Bill" eye on the front was pretty much unavoidable. I love it. It gives them a lot of character. They nearly got WWII-style shark mouths on the sides too.

The original "Bullet Bill" thanks to Nintendo Corporation.

I went an entirely different painting direction with these ships - the Tarakians are very clean and to some degree experimental. I used no black, no washes and no metallics on them. These Xelocians on the other hand are dirty, chipped-up and well-used. They're meant to look battle-worn and 20 years old.

The other pictures don't show the metallic blue very well

These frigates may not have been the "power" choice as an ally for the Tarakians, but they certainly are the "sexy" choice. They'll be a fun little addition. And if they don't work out, the next ships I post are certainly a heavy-duty "power" choice as allies go. They should be done later today or tomorrow.

Happy 4th, fellow Americans, be safe and enjoy the day!