Saturday, I ran in three games, taking off from the strenuous job of umpiring.
In the morning I played in a Stargrunt game run by KR (who spent most of the
Con running Stargrunt, selling stuff inbetween games). It was an
ambush scenario--a short platoon of NRE Thematic troops who had run out
of grenade launcher ammo, and were also short a few heavy weapons (I
usually have, instead of command squad, a PL, PSG, 3xSAW, 3xGMS/P) and
the troops carrying them. So I'm hidden in the woods, and up comes five
assorted squads of Japanese, Islamic Fed, ex-Swabians, and Cthulu knows
what else in front of the two trucks. Since I opened fire at
point-blank range, I slaughtered the first squad (7 out of 9) and the
second (4 out of 9). Another one came up behind me and shot up one of my
squads, only hitting one man, and his armor saved him. I got mortars dropped
on me, but they were mostly ineffective, only killing one man. Eventually the
trucks decided to go around the ambush, so I had to run my command element out
and shoot them with the GMSs since I didn't have units out on the edges of the
board. Blew up one, immobilized the other. Tactical victory for me since I
really wanted to capture the trucks. But for 1 KIA, 2 WIA, I shot a total of
17 enemy troops.
That afternoon I joined the BYOF battle, taking a LtBatRon. My target was
Indy's force, and I took off across the board to go after him, fragging all
but his NSL carrier, but then I got wiped out by a strike from 108 fighters
off of Keith's fleet. Damned if I know what I could have done differently to
prevent this, so I'm not worried about it.
Evening was probably the best scenario I've ever seen at any con, bar none.
Solar Thrust. Set in a background Keith dreamed up, in 2061, using realistic
engines and FUEL rules. Keith convincingly demonstrated that fuel rules don't
signficantly impact the way the game is played,
even for those who showed up a bit short on fuel. Convoluted five-sided
scenario in which no two players trusted each other. Outstanding use of
conflicting victory conditions, some of which could be fulfilled by peaceful
negotiations prompted Andy Presby to spend more time using commo lasers than
weapons lasers. Jerry Han's Venusians went away soon as his mortal enemies,
the Mercutians (me) closed in to blast him immediately. I was taking a lot of
fire from the UNSC's fighters until
Andy finally committed to helping me--his fighters were almost wiped out
cleaning those damned Earther toys off my battleship. Andy then negotiated
terms for the UNSC's withdrawl, making this a decisive victory for the
Martians, who basically had done a little firing at the Venusians and
otherwise basically drifted in a straight line not doing anything or talking
to anyone. Mars got 80 out of 80 points for having
all non-Martian, non-Vestian (who weren't mentioned in his victory
conditions) warships leave Titan. I picked up 72 out of 80 for not being the
one to deliver the coup de grace to two of Jerry's ships and for letting the
UNSC escape, but I didn't think I had a choice given the state of my
battleship and the Vestian's threatened withdrawl of fighter support.
Tomorrow: AAR for the Big One.
> At 10:30 PM 3/1/99 -0500, John Atkinson wrote:
Um... next time, *you* try being the one skosh fuel. Ya wanna know why I was
plinking away at you from range with my warships? It wasn't because I was
afraid of losing ships, though in the end I did decide that, for a fledgling
UNSC Navy, that probably would've been a consideration.
No, let's just say that if I'd decided to try & cross the board to get at you,
I'd have been burning into my strategic fuel well before you did. (My
carrier had one -- count it, ONE -- box of tac fuel left at the end of
the game. My other ships had less than five each. For the uninitiated, one box
of fuel is used to rotate, or do a one point burn of the main drive; John
didn't mention it explicitly, but yes, the scenario used vector rules.)
> Convoluted five-sided
Quite! ^_^
> Outstanding use of
Most of which, actually. You're the only one who got more for destroying
ships -- apart from the Martian transports -- than for causing them to
retreat.
> Jerry Han's Venusians went away soon
More out of boredom than anything else; his inital instructions said he would
only return fire, then he & Keith worked out a loophole....
> --his fighters were almost wiped out
I got some good rolls. ^_^ (One fighter of mine killed five of
Andy's... a
6... a 6... a five. I was pretty happy, though he did lose a squadmate or two
in the fight. And, unfortunately, no one else got kills from his squad. <sigh>
)
Though nothing beats the rolls you got early on, and I'm still a bit
dumbfounded by Jerry's early rotation maneuver. (Kinda like I am by Noam's
decision to not evade missile salvos in Showdown!... speaking of which, I
should prolly work on orders. Oh well. Soon.)
> Andy then
Not true, actually. I talked to him a few times, and he talked with Andy a
bunch... but then, the latter you weren't worried about. I'm still not sure if
he would've fired on you, though, if you'd come back to hunt me down. (It was
sounding like it, a bit, but since you couldn't stop it was kinda irrelevant.)
> Mars got 80 out of 80 points for having
<grin>
While the UNSC didn't achieve it's listed objectives, I don't think that was a
bad thing since all the listed objectives were derived from information given
to the UNSC by the Venusians. (I hadn't even read the background history in
the packet Keith handed out... oops.) So, as more information came to light, I
changed my own objectives.... <shrug> Kinda
like pre-radio fleets, I'd guess. Commander's gotta have autonomy....
> That afternoon I joined the BYOF battle, taking a LtBatRon. My target
Just for the record, you never touched my NAC battleship, buddy. :-)
Everything ELSE, yeah. :-/
Mk
> What do you mean 'Vorchans aren't atmosphere-capable'? wrote:
Yeah, and those Tuffleys were _cute_ as they puffed into little balls of
gas. Which miniature were those?
> Aaron Teske wrote:
> Um... next time, *you* try being the one skosh fuel. Ya wanna know
Given the Mercutian attitude, I'd have been going all-out anyway.
For those who don't know, the Mercutians had a catastrophic failure of
their habitat's life-support system and the Venusians sent them parts to
replace it. However, they refused to hand over the parts until the Mercutians
essentially sold themselves into slavery. So a few years later, the Mercutians
revolt and kick the living hell out of the Venusians, although at great cost
to themselves. So the Mercutians have this militant culture, no fear of death
in battle, a hatred for the Venutians and their UNSC flunkies, and an attitude
of "never again" that makes the Israelis look positively pacifistic.
> Though nothing beats the rolls you got early on, and I'm still a bit
*Whistle* As I was telling Mark, I _will_ roll well. I can count on
it.
> >Andy then
I could have stopped. Velocity 3, 8 points of fuel, I would even have gotten
going in the right direction, as your carrier was too short on fuel to evade.
> While the UNSC didn't achieve it's listed objectives, I don't think
Kinda
> like pre-radio fleets, I'd guess. Commander's gotta have autonomy....
To what? Getting out in one piece? At least once your colonial allies went
'poof' and you lost most of your fighters...:)
> >That afternoon I joined the BYOF battle, taking a LtBatRon. My
Ex-inspection launches from Traveller. I believe they are now the
'praying mantis' ships from RAFM for Silent Death.
Mk
> On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, Aaron Teske wrote:
> No, let's just say that if I'd decided to try & cross the board to get
(My
> carrier had one -- count it, ONE -- box of tac fuel left at the end of
Keep in mind too, that the UNSC and VMC ships had only -half- their
normal starting fuel. That's only 5 turns at full throttle and the game went
on for 8. So, as I mentioned, for one game (which is almost always less than
10 turns), fuel isn't generally a problem, but if you are playing a strategic
game (which this scenario really was part of), it can be a major
factor - as Aaron discovered!
Still, he covered the fact that he was almost out of fuel very nicely, I
thought. He would have been in a less strong diplomatic position if you guys
had known how bad off he was.
> More out of boredom than anything else; his inital instructions said
Yeah, it quickly became obvous that no one was going to fire at him at their
own... That's something I'll change if I ever run it again (which I probaly
won't soon, too many interesting scenarios in this background left
to do! <g>)
> I got some good rolls. ^_^
And how! <g>
> While the UNSC didn't achieve it's listed objectives, I don't think
Kinda
> like pre-radio fleets, I'd guess. Commander's gotta have autonomy....
Yes, I thought Aaron played the role exactly to the hilt. I would have done
the same thing in his place, I think. I'm glad everyone had a good time, the
actual point values weren't really that important, I don't think.
It was good meeting all of you, as well!
> At 10:32 AM 3/2/99 -0500, John Atkinson wrote:
Yeah, but then you'd have been leaving a few turns into the game... not to
mention, I was pointed at the planet, not at open space. A bit different
effect if you overshoot.... <wince>
[snicker-snack]
> So the Mercutians have
...? That, I didn't pick up from the fluff; at the moment, the UNSC is newly
returned to space after decades of isolationism, and the Venusians are the
only ones who approached them. (Why the Martians didn't, I really don't
know....) Don't blame *me* for the failure of your political branch!
^_-
> and an attitude of "never again" that
That, at least, is true. May have something to do with why they didn't
approach the UN, too; just a bit *too* paranoid....
> >Andy then
Ah, okay. My bad.
> While the UNSC didn't achieve it's listed objectives, I don't think
Kinda
> like pre-radio fleets, I'd guess. Commander's gotta have
Most? I still had more'n half, actually. By one fighter, but more'n half, and
I took out about 60% of Andy's standard fighters. The two attack groups...
would not have done well in a dogfight. And your PDS rolls were laughable
enough that I wasn't worried about 'em, and if you'd actually come to visit my
ships I could've gotten my other weapons to bear....
No, my objectives turned more to things like, "Get contacts so we don't have
to rely on the Venusians" as well as "Find out if this slug story is accurate,
and if so demand to get answers from the Venusians." Survival was also good,
but then it wasn't in *your* orders to die, either. I was
also trying to hit Presby's ship to see if it had screens and/or armor
> Aaron Teske wrote:
The Venusians need to get their side in!! (8-)
Knowing John's temperment, and how annoying the Mecurians are (8-) I
was hoping to get the Vespans in on our side when they saw John open fire
first on me; thus I could claim that I was being opressed. (8-)
It was a gamble; too bad the Vespans didn't go for it. Ah well.
J.
> What do you mean 'Vorchans aren't atmosphere-capable'? wrote:
Mark is correct. They are the Praying Mantis figure from RAFM. You can view
them on-line at the RAFM web site at www.rafm.com. They are RAFM #653.
I'm planning on getting a squardon myself.
> Aaron Teske wrote:
> >this militant culture, no fear of death in battle, a hatred for the
Right. But if you're in bed with the Venusians, I was figuring that you
were the same to us--my victory conditions gave me more points for
blowing you to space scrap than they did for letting you go home.
> >To what? Getting out in one piece? At least once your colonial
Yeah, but thinning out those fighters gave me a fighting chance. And if the
Vestians hadn't pulled their fighter support you'd have been in trouble.
> Anyway... it was a good game, and got one thinking of more than just
Exactally. If you get the players to consider the long-term
consequences of loosing the fight or loosing the ship or negotiating a
peaceful conclusion to the fight, then you've done a good job.
> At 11:04 AM 3/2/99 -0500, you wrote:
> Yeah, and those Tuffleys were _cute_ as they puffed into little balls
I think I have some of these. Are they the Flying Torpedos (cylidrical things
with fins) or are they the pointy nosed ships with the "wings" that have about
three missile tubes each? I've painted one of the Flying Torpedos in Imperial
Japanese Navy colors. I copied the paint scheme from a
picture of a WWII Japanese "Zero"-white base, a light blue band around
the nose and of course the rising sun. Looks rather spiffy, if I do say so.
:-)
> Mk
> Don Greenfield wrote:
that
> have about three missile tubes each? I've painted one of the Flying
You have described them accurately, Don. They will make a fast and deadly
looking (but maybe not for John Atkinson) missile destroyer figure.
The RAFM GIF is small enough that I'm tempted to attach it to this message.
I'll try to resist the Dark side.
You wouldn't happen to have a picture of your IJN Praying Mantis? (It even
sounds Japanese.)
> Yeah, and those Tuffleys were _cute_ as they puffed into little balls
that
> have about three missile tubes each?
The latter: pointy-nosed ships with 'wings' housing what you interpret
as 3
missile tubes each (and what I interpret as forward-arc Class-2 beam
batts:)
> I've painted one of the Flying
:-)
Keen. I dinna think I have any of those Flying Torps.
Mk