Pirate raid on a mining station… solo game

The pirates had arrived while most of the stations crew were sleeping they hadn’t had a chance, a few had put up a fight in and around the control room but that didn’t last long.

But before they had all died one of them had managed to send out a destress call, although it would be too late for them a mining defence force was is on its way.

The pirates have now emptied the station into their freighters and the captured station freighter and are preparing to get under way when the first of the defence force ships arrived…

The pirates force was –

1 x Converted Heavy Freighter with a single laser turret

1 x Converted Light Freighter

3 x Converted Civilian Liners

1 x Captured Light Freighter

The Mining Defence Force was –

1^st turn – 1 x Light Cruiser and 1 x Frigate

Then from the beginning of turn three on the roll of a double with 3D6 these ships could arrive on a random table edge.

1 x Heavy Cruiser with a double laser turret

4 x Frigates

All the pirate controlled freighters started at zero speed and could not start their engines until all their crew were back on board at the beginning of turn two, the converted civilian ships were just moving around slowly at speed 4.

Turn one, the light cruiser streaked onto the table and opened up against a pirate civilian ship and stripped away its shields, but its missiles failed to get through the pirates PDS.

The pirate then fires off its anti-ship torpedoes but the light cruisers PDS easily handles them.

Not a great start for the pirates the early shooting has gone against them slightly but it is only a few minutes into the battle.

Turn Two, not a great turn for the mining defence ships, every pirate ship within range had targeted the frigate, there was no way the ship could take that amount of concentrated fire even if it was from pirates!

So now the light cruiser was in its own until some re-enforcements arrived.

Turn three, and nothing!! Not a single double so no extra ships arriving this turn to help the light cruiser, she was on her own for now, could she survive?

Well somehow the light cruiser did!! It was down to its last hull point and had taken a critical hit on one of its hardpoints taking out one of the missile ports, but it was still in the fight.

The pirates missed a lot of shots this turn which helped, but the cruiser desperately needed some more ships to turn up or this was going to be a very quick battle.

Turn four, and help has arrived in the form of two frigates and one heavy cruiser.

The pirate ships were starting to speed up and were trying to escape, will these new ships be able to stop them or are they too late.

The light cruiser could not get anywhere safe and was lost early in the turn, she was last seen spinning slowly off into space.

One of the newly arrived frigates managed to get in behind the big pirate freighter and hit it with one of its missiles damaging the big ship, but it didn’t even slow it down.

Things are not looking good for the mining defence force.

Turn five, one more frigate arrived this turn and headed after the fleeing pirates.

The frigate kept in behind the big freighter but this time the pirates PDS stopped both of its missiles.

Another frigate slipped in behind a pirate light freighter and managed to do some damage with one missile, but again not enough to worry it.

Shooting from both sides was a bit rubbish this turn, both sides only managed to take down a few shields.

Turn six, no more help arrived this turn ( my dice rolling is rubbish )

The big pirate freighter was hit by two more missiles as it moved and received another critical hit this time taking out its PDS which could not be repaired in this battle, could the defence force take advantage of this and hit it with more missiles…

One of the small converted civilian ships made it to safety, none of the defence force ships could do anything to stop it.

The heavy cruiser pushed forward at full speed to try and close the gap between it and the pirate heavy freighter, it fired off a salvo of missiles before stripping off the big ships shields with its lasers and putting a few more holes in the pirate ships hull.

This was not looking good for the pirate heavy freighter, there was nothing it could do about those missiles it would just have to try and soak up the damage and keep heading for safety…

Turn seven, the pirate heavy freighter took three missiles in its side and the resulting explosion split the big ship in two.

The heavy cruiser saw this destruction and slowly turned around towards two more pirate ships and let loose with everything it could and took out its own light freighter rather than see it taken by the pirates.

The remaining pirates left the battle and FTL’d to safety while the defence force went back to see what was left of the mining station and to count the cost of this attack…

Well that was close with four points to each side, the defence force just managing to get a draw.

The defence force was not having a good time right up until that last turn, the pirates were causing a lot of problems early on in the battle with those damn torpedo’s but eventually their luck ran out.

The pirate light freighter was on its last hull point of damage, just one more hit and the mining defence force would have won!!

Bringing the re-enforcements on like that made things very hard for the defence force, and my bad rolling was not helping, I think if I hadn’t got those three ships on turn four the pirates would have won without much of an effort.

The pirates are always fun to play as they are a bit weak compared to a normal war ship, those anti-ship torpedo’s can be so unpredictable either a complete waste as they all miss or super deadly as they destroy the ship that they hit… I can’t wait to give them another outing, hopefully they will get their revenge next time.