Well Monday’s game seems like a long while ago!
Some family came to stay so all things hobby had to be put on the shelf until today, so I have finally managed to get this battle report done.
Monday’s game was a try out of a new scenario which is to be released soon, and I think it played really well, the basic idea is two factions have a dispute about the ownership of a mining facility on the edge of a resource heavy asteroid field.
The two factions send in two of their biggest ships to sort this out, so the basic force is a Dreadnought each plus a few smaller ships as escorts, it is not a straight meeting scenario though, there is a table to roll on to see what things happen on the way to this sector.
My opponent rolled, and my ships had pushed their engines to their limits and beyond to get to the sector first, which they did, but one of my ships had engine failure and did not make it to the battle!!
So not a great start to the battle for me but having got to the asteroid field first I had the advantage of setting up my ships first where I wanted around the mining station, my opponent then set his ships up on his edge of the table.
Turn one saw me firing a couple of missiles at his Fighter Carrier, I knew that they would not hit it, but they would hopefully make him take his ship away from them and around a large asteroid, this would then take his Carrier out of range of my ships for at least a couple of turns.
My opponent had more Fighters and Fighter bombers on the table thanks to that damn Carrier, but hopefully I could keep my ships away long enough to do some heavy damage on his Dreadnought before those fliers could start to hurt me.
Well at least that part of my plan worked!
I managed to move my Dreadnought in close to his in one turn and really started to put some hurt onto his ship, a Dreadnought can really turn a good day into a rather bad day really quickly, but like most of the game I just couldn’t get a critical hit ( we went almost until the last turn before we saw any real damage from critical hits )
Then came the worst point of the game for me, I got hit by some perfectly timed and perfectly aimed missiles that I just could not stop, my Dreadnought took a pounding from four, one of my Frigates spun off dead after taking two direct hits from missiles and my Light Cruiser took some damage from one as well, all in all not a great moment in the game… my opponent kept rolling maximum damage for almost all of his missiles which was not nice of him!!
But at least there still were no bad critical hits, which was at least good for me.
Then the Fighters and Bombers started to get involved in the fighting, we lost a few of each on both sides, but this hurt me more as I had less to start with.
Then the two big ships turned on each other again and stripped off loads of hull points so that both ships were looking a little like Swiss cheese, but both were still able to continue without to many problems, I did get a critical that took out his Dreadnoughts shields for at least two turns, could this be the opportunity I was looking for, his big ship almost defenseless for two whole turns… it was time to kill it!!
Then those damn bombers hit my ships again, and scratch one Dreadnought, it had taken such a battering from his Dreadnought and other ships that it just could not hold on against the concentrated fire coming in from all around, so it goes spinning off into space a wreck.
Well his Dreadnought was still on the table and still taking hits from the few ships that I had left, then I managed to get some major critical damage and “Booooom!!!” bits of his Dreadnought were flying everywhere… mmm that was not great as my Light Cruiser was very very close at that point, so it took a few large pieces of Dreadnought in through its side which caused one of my missiles to explode inside my ship!!
Oh dear, it was not going well, all chance of even getting a slim victory just went spinning off into a nearby asteroid…
All that was left on the table was a rather sick Frigate and one flight of Bombers, so at this point the sensible thing to do would be to turn tail and run for home… nope I spun the Frigate around and went for the Carrier, I got a couple of hits into her shields but no damage, then it was all down to the Fighters and Bombers.
A flight of my opponents Fighters did a run at my Bombers, in the excitement of the easy kill proceeded to all miss!!! So, my last flight of Bombers thinking that lady luck was smiling on them decided that they would do a quick bombing run at the Fighter Carrier and end this battle… and they did, they were destroyed by the Carriers point defence systems and the game ended.
Well that was great fun and my opponent seemed to think so as well, again luck was not on my side, and I can’t blame the dice gods either as my rolling was not bad in this game, I was just out played.
Still at least I got to play with some of my big ships.
How do these rules play solo? Is it a matter of play both sides?
Hi Andy,
At the moment it is, but I test almost all the rules by playing both sides solo until I can get games with the guys that help with the playtesting.
Because of the activation it works ok, although I have been looking at some simple rules to cover solo games, but they are a long way off at the moment.
Mac
Hi Mac & Andy,
I play Stars & Lasers solo most of the time (no local club, visit mates on a once per month basis etc) and it plays fine – all of my recent games have been solo ones!
Unlike a lot of space combat games it doesn’t require written orders/energy allocation, which speeds play immeasurably. This, combined with the simple activation sequence & smooth combat resolution, means a game can be played solo easily – the only (minor) drawback is that with larger games play will proceed more slowly (there’s only one of you doing it all!).
The (now nicely expanded) range of ship designs allows for a wide range of fleet choices/organisation. If required, fleets can be identical and the game will still play fine.
It should be possible to create your own ‘tactical doctrine’ rules for solo games – they don’t need to be overly complicated as long as common sense plays its part in the game.
I’d suggest rating a fleet as being either:
1). Aggressive: strives to close to 10″ or less of nearest target at first opportunity then remains at that range where possible, turning to pursue if needed, until that target is destroyed, will always fire missiles if loaded and in arc. Escorts will form ‘wolf packs’ and seek to outflank enemy ships before surrounding them to fire lasers and missiles. Will always stuff it’s turret/special weapons mounts with the hardest hitting weapons allowed. At all times the force will seek to close and inflict damage.
2). Neutral: strives to stay between 10″ and 15″ range, uses concentrated fire on nearest threat, uses missiles against enemies trying to close to delay/keep them at a distance. Escort craft will act as a screen between enemy ships and own sides capital ships, but will not move closer than 10″ to enemy ships. Will balance attacks with risk to own ships.
3). Defensive: strives to stay at or beyond 15″, using long range concentrated fire on nearest threat. Escort craft will protect larger craft from missiles/bombers as a priority and will remain within 4″ of them at all times. Will seek to avoid taking damage as a priority rather than inflict it. Will always have maximum allowed engineer teams!
Obviously these suggestions are a bit vague, but could form the basis of a simple system – scenario victory conditions will change a forces behaviour as well.
Regards, Vic
Thanks for the replies guys, guess I might have to pick these up then
Hi Andy,
If you do decide to get the rules I hope you have fun using them, they are simple and fun to use, but still give a very good tactical game.
And if you have any further questions don’t hesitate to contact me, I will always try and help.
Cheers,
Mac