[FT] Worst Gaffe

Not necessarily the silliest thing I've ever done, but the one that sticks
most in memory:  playing a SMR-heavy Islamic Fed fleet, I unloaded all
my missiles on the enemy fleet in a "all or nothing" strike that was a little
too concentrated. Hit one frigate, which received more missiles than it had
Mass.

Running an ESU SDN w/ CE against an FSE fleet. 'Oh, I've got these long
range class 4's, so I'll just creep up on 'em, and the variant Beijing/B
will keep me safe'. That was the CE I decided was marked such a bad luck ship
that my 'DD' squadron got it when no one else would take it.

In case you haven't guessed, the Komarov is an SML-dispersed cloud in
memory alone...

The_Beast

PS I guess the second biggest was putting my lowly Gorchovs' SML packs in the
same place that my FSE colleague did his. Too bad for the NAC commander, he'd
decided to run his ship flat out down the center. *boom*

PPS My actual first, probably, was sticking to my supposition that FTII is a
small area, slow speed game. Lo, that makes those SML's mighty!

I'm embarressed to say that I can't recall any truly horrendous mistakes in FT
games. I'm sure I've made many, just supressed the memory.

Disasters - those aplenty.

1. A convention game where all of one side had to FTL in, and scattered
randomly, with all ships "off the table" being lost. I carefully positioned my
aimpoints to minimise chances of this happening.

Then proceeded to roll 11s and 12s on all 2D6 rolls for scatter - the 2
dice were
multiplied together, and the randomly-rolled directions were to the
nearest table edge. Scattering a minimum of 30" on a 4ft wide table meant that
not a single one of my fleet actually made it onto the board. Almost the
shortest game I've ever been in (the shortest game was in another genre, where
my opponent moved first,

> 2. Another convention game, where I thought that a Konstantin with 2

ANOTHER couple of hard luck Beijing/B variants?!?!? We should get our
three together. The Escort Squadron of the Damned!

Still, that was damn close to what I hit; I still say it was a silly faux paux
of moi.

The_Beast

> Alan and Carmel Brain wrote:

This brings back fond memories of my groups first game with salvo missiles.

This was basically a "try it and see" game with two identical FSE detachments.
Terrain was one planet and one moon in the center of the map (the BFG
cardboard ones). Both fleets come barreling in at each other, both charging
towards the narrow strait between the planet and moon. Both teams fire all
tubes. Very high missile density. PDS is more or less no help. Brief pause
while we tally up the damage to each side.

This followed by a futher very quiet pause as we contemplate the
mind-boggling
amount of damage that was just unleashed. Lots of clattering dice later, most
of both sides major combatants are wiped off the map leaving one poor carrier
to loop around the planet and try to finish off the only other surving ship
from the other side.

Can't remember any real clangers of errors -- don't say they haven't
happened, just that I can't remember them... <g> -- but I do remember
one absolutely horrendous example of pure bad luck, and the awful killing
power of massed plasma bolts...

Bifrost '01, an eight-player game featuring a Kra'Vak strike on an NAC
repair-resupply ship, with each side receiving "help" from,
repectively, the Phalons and the other 3 major powers; all sides are
using small-to-medium ships -- nothing bigger than a BC, from memory.
The game starts with the Krak on the table, facing an NAC squadron and an NSL
detachment, all in orbit around a planet; the other sides FTL in
at various times over the first few turns -- wherein lay the seeds of
the "tragedy."

I'm playing NAC, my son is ESU with a useful little squadron of cruisers and
his favourite Warsaws (not, for once, acting as his usual Torpedo DD swarm
<g>) and he arranges (before the game starts) to FTL
in away from the visible melee areas -- great, except one Phalon
squadron picked the same area to arrive the turn before and he ends up right
in front of them! One PB salvo took out his entire squadron...

What do you say to a 12-year-old who's been looking forward to this
game for weeks when his fleet is blown out of the sky on its first
turn? B-(

Phil
----
"I think... I think I am! Therefore I am... I think?"
                                       -- The Moody Blues

On Fri, 2 May 2003 10:22:39 +0100 (BST) Phillip Atcliffe
> <Phillip.Atcliffe@uwe.ac.uk> writes:
<snip>
> I'm playing NAC, my son is ESU with a useful little squadron of

Utter and complete bummer.

Maybe (with a gulp,) "Here, son, play my fleet."???

I know, 20/20 hindsight is always too late to be of use.

Gracias,

> Utter and complete bummer.

> Maybe (with a gulp,) "Here, son, play my fleet."???

> I know, 20/20 hindsight is always too late to be of use.

Truly. I was thinking along the lines of 'quick, lad, find a pick up game.'
Definitely need to be 'back in the saddle' right away.

I'm assuming he didn't turn goth the way my Megan did...

The_Beast

PS Lovely lass, though, who will be at Origins instead of GenCon this year.