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With today (the 4th) being a Saturday, I got yesterday off for the Federal Holiday. Zjonni also had the day off from college, so he came over for some gaming yesterday. As he wasn’t entirely on top of things, he decided to go for Star Fleet Battles over learning any of the other games that I’ve given him some intro to, but he hasn’t played yet.

After a little indecision, he stuck with the D7 as his training vessel, and I decided to take the Hydran Lord Commander command cruiser (without fighters, thank you), as a good way to encourage maneuver. I carefully pointed out the gatlings, and the Fusion beams and made sure he had an understanding of why being overrun with a Hydran is a Bad Idea.

And it worked; the fight went several turns with a good amount of maneuvering for position going on. I eventually got him, but it took a fair amount of work, and I never really got closer than range two. I was helped early on when a volley of disruptors hit 1:4 with odds that should have seen three hit, I really didn’t have the reinforcement to deal with that, and it would have been an extra down shield (we both ended with not much left in that department). However, the dice were pretty cold for both of us early, though I got the advantage of the first shot with good rolls.

That took (including lunch out) until mid-afternoon. For a second game, we went over a couple of rules, went to a two-on-two battle and he wanted to try something different. So, he had a couple of Gorn CAs and I took two D7s.

The initial maneuvering went well, and I started denting one of the CAs at moderate range. Zjonni finally got in close enough with the CA I wasn’t concentrating on to launch it’s pair of torpedoes. At the same time, the one I’d been picking on was trailing behind and to one side, and it launched its facing torpedo. Then it turned in to bring the other to bear and launch it. I could probably have run them out to near their full range, but I went in a bit to volley what I could on the hurt CA, and managed to get one of the torpedo launchers. This meant I wasn’t able to run them out past the mid-range damage brackets. The D7 he was picking on by now had all the rear shields shredded, and now took most of its fluff, but was still a good fighting platform.

The next turn saw both hurt ships doing their best to pull out of combat, with moderate success. That left the two unhurt ships facing off. Since they were already inside of overload range, I went slow and charged everything hoping to get a good shot off as he swept out of range. Instead, he stopped and taced. I was going just fast enough to get to him. Disruptors can fire every turn, so they have a lower one-shot output than other heavy weapons. So it is easy to forget just how much damage a range-0 pass from a D7 can actually put out.

The next turn was spent finishing off wrecking the CA… and about this time it had to be called for dinner (since that was the same table). It was obvious I was going to win, but there was a lot hurting left; it was obvious that I was going to eat a plasma-G at full strength, never mind the phasers.

At any rate, two games, a lot of fun, and Zjonni is getting up to speed very nicely.