From: Beth Fulton <beth.fulton@m...>
Date: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 11:25:27 +1000
Subject: Re: [FT] The Teske field has landed (long)
G'day all, I'd just like to record an official sighting of the Teske field on dates 5/2/99 and 7/2/99 in Hobart Australia. First in flesh FT battle I've played in too long a while and what happens? I'm possessed by Teske - not a 1 in sight... But I digress, first a little background. Decided to convert a few more GWs to GZG last Friday night. So we opened our home to all comers and ended up with a house full! Talk about feel like old mother hen! Anyway we decided on about 1000 pts each, which then made up 2 big fleets for a slog match. OK not very pretty, not very classy, but it got their attention. Line up (from memory so I've probably forgotten something and as informal as hell as my naval training extends to big/little/piddling/humungus): The good guys (what can I say my son named us) Derek - NSL SDN + 3 NSL little guys (Escort cruiser and light cruisers I think) Me - FSE Fleet Carrier with 7 groups of std fighters (not my usual mix, but I had to stay as close to 1000 pts as possible) Brian (initiate) - NSL Battleship + 3 NSL little guys (Escort cruiser and Light cruisers or something) Mark (initiate) - FSE Battleship + BC + Corvette + Escort Cruiser (I know these for sure as they're my figs) The bad guys Daniel - NAC SDN (I think - it was huge anyway) + another couple of big NAC ships Nathan - 3 ESU Escort Cruisers + some other ESU little ship Andrew (initiate) - ESU SDN (I think) + couple small ESU ships Steve - ESU SDN + ESU anti-Kra'vak ship (big ship he designed to kill a mate's Kra'vak - lots p-torps etc.) Turn 0: With coffee and biscuits duly ingested (nothing like trying to poison the oppposition with caffeine and home cooking first) we set-up. Top left corner sees NSL and FSE in one very big group pointing towards the table centre. Meanwhile the dastardly Bad Guys go for the "lets string ourselves out in a big long line" maneuver and proceed to cover the entire right edge of the table. Turn 1: Both sides show their complete faith in telepathy by not consulting and each commander heads off in their own direction - the chaos begins! Mark's FSE turns right to face NAC while the rest of the Good Guys more or less turn left. The master-stroke being that the FSE carrier places itself with consummate skill at the blind-spot of the fire zones of the two main groups, so everyone's attention is elsewhere... (What you expected an objective report?) Turn 3: Mark's FSE realises that their admiral meant their "other right" and finally decide to join the rest of us. The NSL form-up better than any rugby/grid-iron pack I've ever seen and face off with the central ESU - it looks like its 12:00 at the OK-coral (I have absolutely no idea how to spell that, but you get the idea). Meanwhile long lost comrade Steve putters up the board, Daniel turns down the flank and I find myself happily sitting dead in the middle of EVERYONE's fire arc! Nice going navigator! Then fire begins. Much to my astonishment/delight the entire ESU universe decides that they want the NSL eagle off the SDN as a hood ornament, while the NAC make the exceutive decision that the Admiral in charge is on the FSE battleship and so try to pound it into its constituent quarks. Thus everyone fires AROUND the FSE carrier. More "plinks" than hits are heard and it seems like this could be a VERY long night. Meanwhile FSE Admiral in charge of the carrier is wondering who she should thank for the cloaking device which must have been installed at that last starbase... Turn 4: FSE corvette charges NAC while the rest of Mark's forces try to line up with the NSL. NSL plod forward, ESU plod forward. Meanwhile the 7 FSE fighter groups and an SM decide they'd like a change of scenery... mmmm that ESU SDN looks pretty... The suddenly, "is it me or is the light in the room dimming, the world is spinning, there's this pain in my hand..." then equally suddenly everything clears, but I feel strangely different... PDS fire is completed with only 2 fighters down. Andrew begins to look distraught, but Steve assures him that I own the rights on the number 1 and that Andrew will have Grandchildren before I ever hit him. Then I roll... To my shock each group rolls AT LEAST 4 6s and 3 sets of re-rolls!!! Its a heady feeling, and I thank the universe for this fleeting honour... but it ain't fleeting... But first, the NAC fire on the NSL SDN and cause a few nicks. Then Derek fires - he doesn't believe in any magic associated with plastic cubes with dots on, but then he always rolls 6s and so thinks its a normal occurance (and nothing changed here). Then its the ESU fire and once again they decide to concentrate their fire elsewhere and some smaller ships look a bit sick. Then the FSE carrier fires - all 6s! The Bad Guys suggest I change dice and even Derek is looking a little unsettled. Steve is out of range and so its Brain's fire.. the Teske field has an area effect! Brian does 45 points of damage. By the end of the turn the ESU SDN is a hulk and both the central Escort Cruisers strike their colours (I would too when you've lost most of your internal systems) - good riddance pesky Area Defense Fire-controls!! Turn 5: My fighters leave for greener pastures again - this time the Escort Cruiser accompanying the other ESU SDN. Meanwhile the NAC end their move on top of 5 SMs, the NSL sort of fly round in circles while the central ESU pilots go shooting past before realising that the brake is the other peddle. The FSE carrier gracefully glides doen the centre of the table, a trully beautiful sight to behold, like Athene sprung full grown from Zeus's forehead... (Ahem, excuse me got carried away there). When the plasma clears half the ships have missiles on them and another ESU is being circled by the "Indians" (OK the word vulture was used at the time, but if the Bad Guys want even press let them write it!). PDS fire is going mad left, right and centre, but its not until the missles and fighters hit that we see real carnage! Teske you beautiful human being my fighters saw that Escort Cruiser turn into an expanding debris cloud! The field effect also continued and the Bad Guys opened a new box of dice. By the end of the turn. The Bad Guys were staggering (then again maybe that was my cooking finally taking effect) and our side had some scratches, but was yet to lose a ship. Turn 6: What remains of the central ESU narrowly avoids flying off the edge and now sits forlornly at the spot where the Good Guys had begun - they decide that watching rather than dying might be the way to go. The NSL all head for Steve's ships; Steve attempts to slow at precisely the wrong time - he spins 180 deg and does a main burn - thus can't fire out the rear arc just when he's heel to toe with Brain's NSL (now in his rear arc!). Daniel's remaining NAC once again end on top of multiple missiles and his 2 fighter groups decide to go out in a blaze of glory. And to add insult to injury Derek's loan fighter group (launched the turn before) also manages to find itself being mothered by an NAC ship (Daniel summarily executes all navigators on the spot). The FSE fighters and NSL missiles swarm the ESU "anti-Kra'vak" ship and lastly the Fultons manage to cause many comments about knowing each other too well, by ending their moves with the FSE carrier and NSL SDN side by side pointing directly at Steve's ESU SDN (and all without uttering a single word). The missile fire proves deadly at both ends of the board - the NAC is all but dead with 7 hull boxes to go and my fighters watch open-mouthed as their target disappears in front of their eyes (bl**dy NSL missiles stealing what was rightfully an FSE kill, but not to worry there's always that SDN for me to let lose on..). The NSL fighters take the NAC down to 3 hull boxes, but with a manical laugh Daniel uses his last breaths to pop the FSE Escort Cruiser (our first and only loss). Brian continues to display the area effect and Derek takes up where he leaves off to see yet another ESU SDN leave the field. (Stole my kill again!!) Finally everyone at the low end of the table was out of arc (or targets - b*st*rds!!!) so it was Mark's fire. Now remember that little Corevette that charged the NAC (so it could fire its Submunitions pack before dying) all those turns ago? Well it had taken heavy damage in that gutsy charge, but had managed to get its Fire Control and Beams back on line. So in a last hurrah for the Teske Field Mark rolled 7 6s in a row (Daniel took the NAC SDN off after the first 2, but Mark just wanted to see how long it lasted). A cry of "Stencil!!" was heard on the Corvette's bridge. So we had a good battle, I found out what a 6 is and we conveted another 3 to Full Thrust. In fact Brain and Mark swore off Warhammer on the spot as they can never roll a single 6 there, so Full Thrust must be their game (all thanks' to Aaron misplacing that field of his). As a side note the field was still around on Sunday when it visted my son at his first "real" visit to the wargames club. It was his 5th birthday and he was allowed to join the club. His first game there was of Full Thrust and he chose one of his Star-blazers SSDs we'd done up (with wave-gun etc.). He didn't roll under a 5 all day! I don't know who was more chuffed - Lochy or his Dad! So there you go Master Teske, you're field has landed;) Cheers Beth