From: John Fox <jfox@v...>
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 13:08:54 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [GZG-WCC] Human vs Kra'Vak
Hello Everyone: I ran two games at the con 1) 24K HvK game 2) 6K HvK game About the BIG one. Each side got 12K points. Unfortunetly I gave the humans alot of fighters an d carriers (2 CVL and 3 CV, 26 squadrons total, standard fighters). The Kra'Vak got 1 CVL and 1 CV (total 10 squadrons). The break down was then 2 of each capital ships for humans, roughly 6-8 of each cruiser and 8 destroyers. The Kra'Vak had 7 destroyers, 6 Light cruisers, 4 cruisers, 5 strike cruisers and 4 hwy cruisers, 2 BC, 2 BB, 1 BDN and 1 SBDN. The fact that the table was the limiting factor meant that everything was roughly linup and go at it. If we would have had a bigger area that might have worked better (of course someone might have stepped on a ship also). The real winners of the battle were the asteroids. They took out five Kra'Va k cruisers due to poor navigation by the pilots. Had two asteroid crossing at roughly center of table in oppisite directions. The humans lead off by sending all but roughly 8 fighter squadrons down one side to get at destroyers and cruisers. It took two turns for everyone to get close to gun range. At this time the fighters waded in and promptly got slaughtered. Much talk ensued about scatter guns as ADAFs and all that. They managed to take out one ship if I remember correctly. Not many left after that round (fighters). In the center John Leary sent his fighters against a SBDN an d managed to do some hefty damage for human fightes (lets just say it got the ships captain attention). A certain destroyer squadron did a great bait them into range then bring them towwards the capital ships (Hey, my job is to just get them here, not destroy them!) The humans lost a couple ships to fire. The next round the caranage started. The humans lost roughly half the ships on the board. Those K5 rail guns tend to make life horrible for anything but a capital ship. Saw a couple cruisers and one battlecruiser dissappear from one salvo. (4 X K4, all hit, 3 doubled, 1 normal and 3 K1, 1 double for a total of 39 points from one ship). The humans took out maybe two ships. The following round the asteroids did their damage and then the humans tried to do some. Again mass carnage for the humans. They managed to take out a carrier (or a SBDN), a couple destroyers, a cruiser and that was about it. The Kra'Vak fighters waded in on one side and took out three human ships, messed up a forth so it was rendered to scrap by a couple well placed shot. Two human SBDN ended up right in front of a Kra'Vak BDN, and one BB, one BC. IT was ugly . After five (or six turns) the game was called due to hunger pains by the players (lunch time). The Kra'Vak ruled. Lessons for next time. 1) If you are going to do such a large game get a BIG playing area. 2) Humans need less fighters and more shooting ships. 3) A mix of nationalities would have been nice (I only had NAC). Had it been NSL or something else the results would have bee a little different. 4) Get the rules for supporting scatter pack fire finalized. Game mechanics. 1) Everyone gets roughly five minutes to write down orders for ships (each person had roughly 8 ships) 2) Those without orders go straight 3) Roll a dice to determine which segment each ship shoots in. 4) After order written asteroid move then ships move. (That asteroid hit my ship!) Rough time elapse was three and ahlf hours. Started rouhgly 10 ish, ended roughly 1:30 ish. Someone made the comment 'Gee, I thought this was going to be a BIG game!" I told him to wait till next year. Game Two Two convoys, Human and Kra'Vak go to reinforce the same planet. Both sides enter same side but oppisite ends. Planet placed other end of board in middle 12 inches from side. The commander has to decide to defend or attack or both. Sides (Humans, 6 transports, 2 med freighters, 2 light freighters, 2 fleet aux, 1 hwy cruisers, 2 cr, 2 light cruisers, 5 destroyers, 3 frigates, 2 cor roughly) (Kra'Vak, 10 freighters, 1 cr, 1 Lcr, 4 destroyers, 5 Frigates, 3 corvetts, 2 light craft). The humans split their forces somewhat. The Kra'Vaks attacked with almost everything. This one was more even with the Kra'Vak losing all but one cargo ship (one hold damaged). The Humans lost all their cargo ships. The humans los t all their fighting craft. The Kra'Vak lost the LCr, all destroyers, half the 3 frigates. The K Cruiser suffered a bridge hit for 6 turns (read off board). The hero for the humans was the heavy cruiser who flew through the Kra'Vak formatio n twice and lived while taking out cargos left and right. He finally died. Lessons learned 1) Make time to enter orbit roughly four or five turns. Other wise to much time to kill everything 2) Give the Humnas about a 5:4 advantage in fighting points. 3) Cargos are slow and sitting ducks. Plans for next year 1) 30K battle. (Geee is this big enough for you now!) Probably three seperate battles of 10K each one three seperate tables around a planet. 2) Another convoy run with roughly the same level again. 3) A game with lots of asteroids and other stuff. John W. Fox > John Leary wrote: