From: -MWS- <Hauptman@c...>
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 02:19:44 -0800
Subject: [FT] After action report - merchant raiding
Greetings, all!
Lonnie & I played a *very* enjoyable game tonight - on this week's
agenda was a little merchant raiding. My small K'rathri squadron's objective
was
to capture supplies from an "undefended" star system - Lonnie played a
detached destroyer fleet that just happened to be in the system for a little
R&R. We threw a few variables into the setup just to make things more
interesting.
Rules: Fleet Book using cinematic movement. Boarding rules from MT used for
ship capture. Points per side: 650 max
Merchant 'targets': 2 ships - One UM Heavy Freighter mass 120 (FB page
42)
and one UMH "Super-Heavy" freighter mass 160 with the same basic stats
(thrust 2, PDS, 16 hull boxes & 111 mass cargo).
K'rathri raiders: Roll randomly between two forces:
[1-3] CQ/DQ/DD/FF/FL
[4-6] CQ/DQ/(3x)FF
Rolled 5, I got the second fleet.
NAC defenders: Roll randomly between three forces:
[1-2] (4x)DD/(2x)FF/(3x)FL
[3-4] (4x)DD/(2x)FH/(2x)FL
[5-6] CL/(3x)DD/FH/FF/FL
Rolled 2, Lonnie got the first fleet.
Setup: 4' x 6' "Starscape" mat (nice!!) centered on 4' x 8' table.
Merchants: initial speed 4, setup 18" from K'rathri end of table (on the mat
by 6")
K'rathri: setup within 2" of table edge, initial speed determined by 2d6 roll,
min 6 (rolled 9).
NAC: enters games on turn determined by 1d6 roll at "planetary orbit" (rolled
2), initial thrust at 8 when entering.
We set up a 4" x 8" "orbit box" on the NAC edge of the Starscape mat -
the remaining table was out of play. The K'rathri's objective is to capture
one or more of the merchant ships and escape off his end of the mat with them.
The NAC's objective is to get the merchant ships into orbit by hitting the
orbit box at the proper vector & speed (8). If both merchant ships are
destroyed, then the player with the least damaged force is a marginal winner.
The K'rathri player gets partial victory points by blowing *everything* up.:)
TABLE SETUP
v-----mat-----v
+-+------+------+-+
| | | | |
K'rathri |K| M-> | [] | NAC end
end | | | | |
+-+------+------+-+
^------table------^
ORBIT BOX
|<--- mat edge
+aaaaaa+
|\ |
| \ |
| |<--- center of mat, short edge
| / |
|/ |
+aaaaaa+
|
To achieve orbit, the merchants had to enter either 'a' edge at a speed of 8
and a vector of 45 degrees or less to the edge of the mat.The NAC player's
ships entered the game from the mat edge (speed 8) next to the
orbit box - roll randomly for each ship to see which side of the orbit
box it enters at.
It took me three turns to catch and board the merchantmen, who were trying to
split up to avoid capture. The CQ and DQ paired up against the UMH while the
three FF's went after the UM. The CQ's needle beams took care of the UMH's
PDS, but the Class 2 beam gunners got excessively enthusiastic
and walloped the freighter, thresholding the drives down to 1 - which
would go unrepaired for the remainder of the game. On turn 2, the UM fired his
PDS at one of the frigates. Because the targeted frigate had just shot that
turn and a second frigate was within "spitting distance" of the first,
I rolled a morale check to see how trigger-happy the second frigate's
beam gunners were (these are K'rathri, after all:). Failed morale check =
alpha strike with all beams (2x Class 2, 2x Class 1, 1 PDS). "Good" die rolls
gutted the poor merchantman 2 full threshold checks, which damaged the FTL and
the thrust.
By this time, Lonnie's fleet is on board and accelerating madly. Meanwhile, my
prize crews had no success coercing the ape's crewmembers into fixing any of
the damaged systems for the rest of the encounter, so the UM, which had split
to starboard & accelerated (yeah, right!:), attempted to turn around to
starboard. The UMH prize crew veered the ship starboard as well (it had dodged
to port) and slowed it down while trying to repair the drives. The UM exited
the starboard table edge on turn 6 and
was considered lost. I managed to get the UMH - with one cargo hold
undamaged - turned around without falling off the edge.
Lonnie's forces were split about equally on entry - so we managed to
perform some fancy closing scissors between my ships and his. Mass confusion
and chaos ensued. I kept the CQ and the DQ as a tight pair for almost the
entire games, while the three FF's also maneuvered basically as a group. This
and some timely initiative rolls allowed me to dish out more
damage than I received - by the time the 11th turn rolled around my CQ
was down only 1 row of damage, the DQ was one point away from his second
threshold check, and I had lost two FF's. Meanwhile, Lonnie was down to
two ships - both of which were streaming serious "flotsam & jetsam" and
had virtually nothing left. We called the game at this point (store closing)
and declared a partial victory for the K'rathri, since both NAC ships would
have been destroyed in the next turn and I was going to be able get the (badly
damaged) UMH freighter off of the table *eventually* <g>.
Game Highlights: * K'rathri FF getting "popped" in turn with 14 points of
damage in one turn. BIG boom.
* Heavily damaged NAC DD crossed right in front of the K'rathri DQ, which
proceeded to seriously overkill him with fire from 0" range Pulse Torpedo, 2x
Class 2, 2x Class 1, and 2x PDS. Pulse Torp gunner fired first and got the
kill.
* All NAC forces - except the DD mentioned above - managed to avoid the
front arc of both the CQ and the DQ - which left the CQ's Class 3
(1-arc)
gunner *very* frustrated for the entire game.
* Lonnie rolls even worse initiative dice than I do - I didn't think
that was possible! I would roll a 4, he'd roll a 3. I roll a 6, he rolls a
5.
This was consistent for the first 9 turns, until he *finally* won initiative
for turns 10 & 11. By this time his ships were streaming serious wreckage and
missing FiCons <eg>.
* Lonnie's last shot was at the freighter - which he managed to hit
(sort of). Unfortunately, he was one point short before losing all of his
FiCons to threshold checks.
Extremely fun game (thanks, Lonnie!) For our next encounter, we're
introducing - Asteroids! [eek!]
===============================================================
K'rathri ships:
[CQ] Gri'mekh class Patrol Cruiser (TMF:74 NPV:248)
1:Class 3 beam, 1-arc (F)
2:Class 2 beams, 3-arc (FP/FS)
2:Class 1 beams, 6-arc
2:Needle beams, 1-arc (F)
2:PDS, 3:FiCon, Thrust 6 Level 1 screens 22 damage, 4 crew factors, 5 boarding
parties
[DQ] Jalkekhri class Patrol Destroyer (TMF:44 NPV:148)
1:Pulse Torpedo, 1-arc (F)
2:Class 2 beams, 3-arc (FP/FS)
2:Class 1 beasm, 6-arc
2:PDS, 2:FiCon, Thrust 6 13 damage, 3 crew factors, 3 boarding parties
[DD] Ra'athri class Destroyer (TMF:34 NPV:114) - NOT USED
2:Class 2 beams, 3-arc (FP/FS)
2:Class 1 beasm, 6-arc
2:PDS, 2:FiCon, Thrust 6 1 armor, 10 damage, 2 crew factors, 2 boarding
parties
[FF] Kr'mekh class Frigate (TMF:24 NPV:81)
2:Class 2 beams, 3-arc (FP/FS)
2:Class 1 beasm, 6-arc
1:PDS, 1:FiCon, Thrust 6 7 damage, 2 crew factors, 1 boarding party
[FL] Dru'krekh class Corvette (TMF:14 NPV:48) - NOT USED
2:Class 1 beasm, 6-arc
1:Submunition Pack (F) 1:PDS, 1:FiCon, Thrust 6 4 damage, 1 crew factors, 1
boarding party