This Monday I unleashed my alien Bio-fleet on some pesky human ships, and it was such a great game, I was up against two opponents who each took forces of 500 points, while I took a 1,000 point force of Alien Bio-ships.
My fleet consisted of a Battleship with a heavy bio-spitter fitted, a Heavy Cruiser, a Light Cruiser, a Corvette and three bases of Fighter Bombers.
My aliens were facing two human forces which consisted of a Heavy Cruiser each, one was fitted with a heavy pulse laser on a turret, one force had two Destroyer’s the other had a Light Cruiser with a Frigate in support.
The two forces faced each other across open space, then the ships raced towards each other…
Turn one saw most of my alien’s head towards the ships on the left, I sent my Corvette to the right giving the ships there something to think about.
My main worry with the bio-ships is enemy missiles, I was used to not having shields, but the alien ships always suffered from being pounded by enemy missiles!
I normally take several alien Frigates to give support to the bigger ships with their PDS, but I thought that I would bring some big guns to the table for a change with the Battleship and Heavy Cruiser.
Well was that going to be a mistake…
Turn two saw many shots from the human ships start to strip away the alien armour, I sent my Heavy Cruiser and Light Cruiser at the group of ships on the left, I soon stripped away the shields from the human Light Cruiser and had a nice surprise of getting a couple of critical hits ( as it happens the first two of several during this game! ) one of the critical hits hit some ammo on board and did several more points damage.
I then sent my alien Battleship out to the right with the small alien Corvette to hit the other group of ships there hoping to get some early damage, the first few shots took down the Heavy Cruisers shields and did a few points of damage and the first shot from the bio-spitter hit home and took away most of the Cruisers ablative armour, my ships took their normal dose of damage and shrugged it off, things were looking good for my aliens.
Turn three saw the alien Fighter Bombers get themselves into striking distance of the Heavy Cruiser on the right, it’s PDS was effective and took out the first wave, but that left the second wave free to move in and attack, they hit home for another critical.
The other group of alien Fighters moved in to attack the human Light Cruiser on the left, it’s PDS took them down to one surviving Fighter which still managed to hit home with its missile for several more hull points of damage.
One of the human Destroyers came in close to my Battleship and fired off its missiles followed by a full spread of missiles from the human Heavy Cruiser, my PDS was not very effective and most of the missiles hit home stripping away huge chunks of chitinous armour, my other ships took fire from lasers from all the human ships, my armour was still doing its job but it wouldn’t last for ever.
Turn four saw the last of my Fighters die but not before they got off a couple of hits on the human ships, one of the human Destroyers lost most of its weapons from another critical hit, it still had some missiles left so it was still a threat, the only ships on the alien side that were not taking too much damage were the Heavy Cruiser and the little Corvette, my alien Battleship hit the human Heavy Cruiser on the right again with its banks of lasers and managed to hit again with the heavy bio-spitter, but the big old alien ship finally took fatal damage and spun off into deep space a dead hulk.
My alien Light Cruiser flew at full speed around an asteroid to hit the Heavy Cruiser in its side, hoping to avenge the death of the big bio-ship, it managed to cause another lucky critical hit, this time causing a comm’s failure, but I still couldn’t kill the ship!!
Turn five saw my alien Light Cruiser finally die, my small Corvette also finally died after being hit by deadly laser fire from a couple of the human ships, my alien Heavy Cruiser took a bit more damage but managed to get close to the human Light Cruiser and hit it with a broadside that should have ripped it apart… but no, the pesky humans still managed to keep flying, but it got a little satisfaction from finally destroying one of the Destroyers and the human Frigate.
At the end of the turn all I had left was my Heavy Cruiser, all I had to do was hit the almost destroyed Light Cruiser and keep away from the other human ships and I still had a chance, everything they had was so close to being destroyed.
Turn six and my alien Heavy Cruiser took its last point of damage and spun off silently to die in deep space… oh, that was so close!
That was a great game, some great moments, but victory just slipped through my fingers at the end.
I think that I rolled about six or seven critical hits in the game, that has to be a record for me, but I still couldn’t get enough damage to win.
Again the bio-ships proved that they are very hard ships to beat in a battle, even without shields or missiles, I think not taking a couple of alien Frigates to escort my Battleship was not a good choice, far too many missiles got through, but it was fun taking the bigger ships, and the alien Fighter Bombers again were very worrying for my opponents.
It was a great game even though I lost… maybe next time my bio-fleet will win!
