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Mark and Patch made it over on Sunday, and we had our first SFB game for nearly a year. (And that one was nearly a year after the previous one. We either need to get more of the rest of the group hooked, or find some way of getting the three of us together more regularly.)

The agenda for the day was SH125 Pressing an Advantage from Module S2. It’s kind of a sequel to the previous scenario we played, happening just afterwards, but with different forces involved. It’s also a very different battle. Captain Koda of a Klingon D6J (penal ship), is determined to get out of disgrace, figures it is now open season on the LDR, goes hunting for an LDR force to win some glory. He starts with a convoy of armed freighters (which are part of the LDR defense forces), and then a significant task force of regular navy vessels shows up….

The opening part of the battle (3 turns) is a distinctly uneven fight between an LDR POL and three armed freighters (two small and one large) and a Klingon force with a D6J, F5C, F5, and E4. After that is a fight with the survivors and a LDR (Lyran—no gatlings) CA, 2xFF and PSC. To encourage things from just being maneuvering with zero combat, the LDR gets VPs for turns 2 & 3 if the Klingons aren’t close enough, and the Klingons get VPs if the LDR forces aren’t close enough (they are there to defend the LDR after all). Within 15 hexes and everything’s fine. Outside of 22 hexes, both sides are getting 4 VP per impulse. The seven hexes in between gives only the LDR VPs. Lastly, the Klingons cannot disengage until the D6J is crippled or one of the reinforcing LDR ships is destroyed.

With three of us, we split the Klingons for the first two turns between Patch and Mark, since they had a bit more to do, with Mark taking over the LDR reinforcements on turn 4.

I took a look at the relative forces and ran. I would have been just as happy if we were both getting VPs because of distance on turn 2, but as it happened, we ended the first turn right in the ‘sweet spot’. The Klingon force pushed itself to speed 30 for turn 2, while I maintained speed 18, which was about as good as the small armed freighters could manage. I kept running for the first quarter of the turn, building up some VPs, and then as the Klingons got into range, a bit off the right side, I turned in.

I had hoped to turn in quick and speed past the Klingon force on a turn where they were obviously giving up weapons for speed. With a closing speed of nearly 50, I could blow by and get back to moderate ranges before even nimble Klingon ships could get turned around. Then it’d be a turn of running flat out while waiting for the regular navy ships to arrive.

Not so much.

While I was generally right, and only about half the disruptors were even armed, the firepower available at that range was more than I could really take, even with some bad rolls. Worse, the Klingons were ready with tractors powered. The POL and one of the small freighters got grabbed. I even aided the process by tractoring the E4 myself. The plan was to hold it for a few impulses so a suicide shuttle had a chance to hit. The F-AS that did that was in turn tractored by the F5C an impulse or two later, leading to the first situation we’ve had where three ships were all tractored together. The D6 tractored the shuttle (quickly destroying it) and and the POL. The other F-AS took the brunt of the damage, and the F-AL took light damage (killing all three ph-2s) as it alone made it through the Klingon formation.

There was a short tractor auction at the end of the turn 2, but my ships weren’t nearly big enough to put up much resistance. All energy went into weapons and shields. It took most of the turn to completely finish off all three ships (cargo pods make great padding), while the F-AL clawed for distance.

Damage to the Klingons was mostly shield damage, but the #1 on the F5 was nearly down, the #6 half down, and the E4 had taken internals.

Turn four was fairly boring, as the LDR forces came in at speed 24, hitting moderate range to the Klingons, who spent the turn regrouping from a scattered position, by the end of the turn. Since so little of the initial force was left, I’m in charge of the F-AL and the CA, while Mark is handling the two FFs and the PSC. A volley of disruptor fire seriously eroded the F5s #2 shield near the end of the turn, leaving it with no strong shields whatsoever. The PSC is hanging several hexes back from the rest of the force, ready to lend EW, and the F-AL has intercepted and is now escorting it.

We had to pack it up for the day at that point. Four turns for something this big is pretty good for us, and we have the setup saved to continue in the near future. Right now, the Klingons have a Substantive Victory (~220%), but it is not likely to stay that way. The situation is still very interesting, and we want to see where it goes from here.

This SFB scenario from Module S2 is probably the most complicated one we’ve done yet. It’s not quite the size of “Battle of the Long Claws”, but it’s close, and has a poor crew (an E4J), a legendary captain, inactive ships (systems are off and have to be rebooted), drone bombardment, and the need for a lot of personnel transfers.

The LDR (Lyran Democratic Republic, formerly the DDSC) has hired Orion pirate ships to help with their defense. The pirates who didn’t get the contract arrange to make it seem to the Klingon Internal Security Forces that those ships are the ones responsible for several pirate raids inside the Empire. The ISF takes off in hot pursuit of one such raid, only to end up at an LDR base where the Orion ships are docked for maintenance and R&R.

After some discussion, we got going a bit late yesterday with me in charge of the Klingons (an F5 and an E4 squadron—specifically a F5P (defanged F5C), 2xF5Is (F5s with shorter range disruptors), 2xE4I (E4s with shorter range disruptors), and a E4J (penal ship, poor crew)), Patch taking charge of the base (a civilian Base Station, still decently large, but toothless compared to most bases) and the Orion ships; and Mark in charge of the mobile defenses (a L-POL, a F-AL, and 2xF-AS).

This is another scenario that doesn’t seem to be thought through properly. I went moderate speed the first turn, and kept tightly bunched (F5s in one hex, and E4s in the next hex over). Mark came out and engaged with the Pol at moderate range, the F-AL at close range and the F-ASs went after the first turn’s drones. Rolls on both sides were poor, with half the disruptors missing at 3-6 or 2-6 range. For me, that wasn’t too bad, as my massed fire was more than enough to gut the F-AL. However, he should have punched a shield on a F5I and done some internals with two overloaded disruptors, but with only one hit, it just weakened the #2.

On turn 2 I went in for the base. I was already fairly close, and Mark’s forces were scattered around the rest of the board. With only Ph-2s, Patch made me pay, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, with the dinged F5I taking a volley through the weak shield and being crippled.

I did quite a number on the base. It was struggling to find power to do everything, and the Orions were just barely generating power for their own shields. Most of the systems on the base were destroyed in my overrun and all three tractors were, forcing the Orions to undock, though they were still drifting in orbit with the base.

I circled around the planet and potshotted a FA-S at range before coming in again to drop some drones and suicide shuttles on the floating mess and heading off to engage the LDR frigate (no gatlings yet) that came in as a reinforcement on turn 3. He refused to engage directly (a good idea), and I was pondering what to do next as we ended for the day.

There was another FF and Pol due on turn 4, and I was headed towards where they’d enter. I figure if they went fast, I’d try to engage (rather than turn my back on them), otherwise it was back to finish off the station to get the explosion and start working on the Orions. Once they were crippled, it would be time to leave (can’t disengage until they’re crippled, I’m crippled or my legendary captain dies). The Orions were not going to be more than an accounting exercise, but the combined LDR forces are potentially dangerous if all together (especially after another Pol and trio of armed freighters on turn 5). So it was time to get an exit strategy while they were separate. Or just try to pick them off one by one.

By the points as they stood when we quit, it was a Decisive Victory. After accounting for some damage, and my disengagement after crippling the Orions, it would go down to Major.

In all, there’s two things here for the LDR. They need to stay closer to the planet and each other. Among other problems, the drone defense was not there because all the ships and shuttles got strung out. I misplayed the drone bombardment (didn’t plot it all ahead of time like I was supposed to, but I missed the backup plans on if they don’t immediately see a valid target either). Second, would be transporter bombs. We’re not used to using those, and taking all the TBs possible to put an ‘instant minefield’ around the base could pay great dividends. It could keep the Klingons at a greater distance, or at least make them pay a much higher price for going in after the base (and force them apart a bit so as not to all get hit by one mine).

Still, good to get a chance at SFB again. It’s nearly been a year since the last game we had finished up.

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.

As neither of us had anything important going on for the day, Zjonni came over Sunday for some gaming. We’ve been meaning to get together for a while now for something with just the two of us, and we finally used a gaming day delay as an excuse. I ran down the list of games I thought I could teach on short notice, and he hemmed and hawed a bit.

Eventually, nostalgia won out and he expressed a desire to try Star Fleet Battles again. We’ve talked about it a bit in the past, and as he pointed out, he hasn’t really had anyone to talk to it about in the last twenty years. I’m more than happy to oblige. ~_^

So I ran him back through the basics, and it was obvious that once reminded he was remembering at least half of it immediately. We started with a classic Fed-Klingon duel (apropos as the current calendar year the group is working with is the year of the Second Klingon-Federation War), with him taking the Klingon. A bit more challenging at this point, but it emphasizes maneuver, which is something he appreciates.

I went slow and finished loading photons and overloaded one pair, expecting a moderate speed from the Klingon to start sniping at me. Well, no, speed 29, and he was practically in my face at the end of the turn. I sped up a bit, overloaded the other pair, and hoped to get in close. Zjonni misjudged/misremembered the situation, and didn’t realize that photons were auto-hit at range 0 and 1, while disruptors only do that a 0. He went slow, put up 16 reinforcement, and expected a miss or two. Well… there wasn’t much of a ship left.

Still, he had a fun time, and it didn’t take long, so we went again, but this time I switched to a Kzinti CA for a challenge that didn’t have the same kind of crunch power, and would also need to maneuver more. The CA is short of power (33, less than the Fed CA), but has four drone racks, four disruptors and usual Kzinti mix of ph-1s and -3s. I also re-introduced him to HETs (I kept it pretty basic for the first time…).

This went better, with him doing a nice job of eroding my #2 shield to nearly nothing, but then he pushed aggressively into knife-fighting range after unloading part of his weaponry. The maneuvering worked out far better for me than I expected, and I managed a range 1 centerline shot. It didn’t do as much as the Fed could, but the drones were right behind… not something I expected to see happen with speed-8 drones. He shot down two, and the fourth was actually targeted on his drone, but the one drone hit put the damage back in the Fed category. Meanwhile, I’d turned past him and was going to get away clean.

Despite the destructive results, he certainly enjoyed himself, and I’m sure he’ll get up to speed quickly. We took a break to show him around some of my SFB materials, and could have probably fit in a third game, but I figured with my luck, we’d get into a drawn-out maneuvering duel that would run overtime. So, I quickly set up Pursuit of Glory ran through the basics, and the first turn of the sample game, explaining in some detail as we went. It’s not the best intro to the constant tension the game creates, but if I get a chance to put in front of him again, he’ll have a good basis for understanding.

After that it was time for a very good dinner. ~_^

In Y155, an Orion “Horde” attacked and destroyed Federation outpost K4. This was a prelude to a massive smuggling operation in which weapons and contraband purchased from the Klingons were smuggled into Federation space.

The three usual suspects (me, Patch, Mark) just finished playing this scenario from S1 online, with Mark taking the Federation and Patch and I splitting the Orions. It’s an interesting scenario, as it’s written to complicate a fairly straightforward situation. Also because of it’s nature, it caused us to pay a lot more attention to a few parts of the rules than normal.

I didn’t want to say too much before the game started, but I did warn everyone before the game started to look over the victory conditions very carefully. The victory conditions work off the normal Modified Victory Conditions, and relative victory points gained thereby, but the points are redefined from the standard BPV. All the Feds have is a Battle Station, and with the number of ships against it, it will be destroyed. Worse, the Orions get to send in a large Q-ship first, and the base isn’t allowed to do anything until it can get its first shot off. However, destroying the BATS is 5 points. Destroying the Q-ship is 10. So, if the BATS destroys the the Q-ship, the Orions lose—unless they can capture the BATS, which is worth 20 points.

Patch had the initial Q-ship, and the two LRs in the force that shows up after it fires. I had the CR and CA that show up with the LRs. The Q-ship came up and fired point blank towards the end of turn 2, downing shield #2 and doing a good number of internals. An impulse later, the suicide shuttle hit. The base is allowed to start with weapons active, and took a fair chunk out of the Q-ship, and slapped on a tractor beam. After the end of turn 2, there was a tractor auction where the BATS maintained the tractor for 13 points of power, which at least drained some of the BATS’ reserves.

Naturally, the BATS carved up of the Q-ship’s hide at the top of Turn 3, while the Orion force moved in at moderate speed. To my surprise, instead of preparing to finish it off, he beamed a couple of boarding parties over, and followed this with more on Turn 4. Luckily, a couple of the transporters had been knocked out in the initial volleys, and he was unable to get an advantage over the Q-ship’s crew, which in fact beamed a couple back on board the BATS. I slowed to speed 8 and got to range 12 from the base at the end of the turn. Patch went faster in the LRs, but swung wide towards the north of the map above the station.

Boarding party combat reduced Patch’s BPs to one on board the Q-ship, and both on board the BATS died. However, they did take one with them.

Mark’s attempt to take over the Q-ship mystifies me. I suppose, if he’d gotten control, he could have tried to limp it off the map, and pretty much guaranteed victory by getting double points for it, but it was pretty much a drifting hulk by this point, and we probably could have grabbed it and towed it somewhere convenient for recapture on its way out. 20 points would certainly have guaranteed a draw at minimum though. If he could cripple a ship or two, it might even be a victory. But, I was quite happy to see him frittering away his BPs on the effort, as it had become obvious that we were going to need to capture the station to get any sort of victory at all.

Obviously, the points are set up so that the Orions must preserve the Q-ship if they don’t want to face a boarding action (and with 25 BPs starting on the BATS, it’s not a fun prospect). To do that, I would think either the Q-ship needs to be able to keep from being tractored as the BATS pounds it to pieces. I’m not sure if it’s possible to keep it from getting crippled (which would still be 2.5 points—half of what the Orions get for destroying the base—a tight budget), but sticking to range 2 or three when firing should make the power exchange uneven enough that the BATS probably can’t afford a determined auction from the Q-ship.

As it was, it was time for my attack run. The CR doubled both engines, bricked #2 and went speed 16. The CA doubled one engine, went 15, put a good brick on #2 and a few points on #1 just in case. By my calculations, the downed #2 on the BATS would come back around about when I got there. Thankfully, Mark did not change the rotation speed and mess that up. The plan was to show him #2 until he fired, then turn the #1 to him, centerline him at point blank, and then show him #6 at the end of the turn. The big worry was that he’d wait until after I had to turn to make the run work and gut me at point blank with an unreinforced shield.

The skirmishing continued at the Q-ship as it emptied it’s last phaser capacitor into the weak #2 (bounced off of reinforcement), and the base transported more BPs on board. Also, Mark fired early and did a mere 20 points to the CA (18 of which bounced off the brick) with 3 ph-4s.

Towards the end of the turn, I hit range 1 with the CA on the weak #2, range 2 with the CR and Patch’s LRs. Even with the EW advantage of the BATS, we did something akin to 98 internals, and thoroughly wrecked things. This was a a means to an end, as the real point was killing more boarding parties on the base (1 per 10 internals taken) right before transporting ours aboard, followed up by three shuttle-loads of further BPs (one loaded at the non-combat rate).

The turn ended with a 5:1 situation on the Q-ship. Mark only generated one casualty, and Patch gave up control of the ship, and preserved his BP with the understanding that there’d likely be help arriving the next turn. Between casualties and transfers to the Q-ship, the BATS was down to 6 BPs, and we had 15, +4 that couldn’t participate until the following turn. We did 6 casualties, effectively silencing the opposition.

Then things got confusing. Mark was thinking of self-destruction, but thought that he couldn’t do it with more than a minimal crew on board; he missed the provisions for if there’s more enemy than friendly BPs on board. If I’d been thinking about it, I would have have burned four of the casualties inflicted in taking over the two-box bridge (the only control spaces left).

As it was, the last two ph-4s spoke one last time, hitting the rear of the CR, and destroying the Q-ship, which exploded on the shield of the CR that just went down. Thankfully, it’s big enough that it could take it without crippling.

The final tally was 20 to 11.5, which worked out to a Tactical Victory for us.

The next SFB game is scheduled to be “The Federation Exchange”, which will probably be played between Mark and Patch.