What follows is a quick solo game using a scenario from the rules Stars & Lasers.
I rolled a “3” on the scenarios list and so set the game up for the “Can’t Stop the Signal”
In the centre of the table I put a small space station which would be the signalling station for this game, I picked a small fast force for the defenders and had some bigger ships coming in to destroy the station, also as the scenario requires three defender’s ships to be docked at the station I thought having a few ships flying about while those docked are out of play would be good.
Defenders list –
1 x Light Cruiser with 1 x Engineer team
1 x Frigate
5 x Corvettes
I rolled a “4” on the operational level of the station so no shields, only three missiles, half its PDS, but all its other weapons were online, no shields! Damn that’s going to hurt
Attackers list –
1 x Battlecruiser
2 x Heavy Cruisers
And with 2 x Engineer teams on each ship
So with the defenders deployment I went with the 6 mines the defender was allowed in a circle around the space station trying to give enemy ships that want approach close to the space station something to worry about, I put three of the Corvettes in docking positions against the space station (these would not be able to do anything until the crews get back on board) and the rest of the ships about twelve inches away to try and keep the enemy force at a distance to make it harder for them to hit the space station.
I rolled to see where the attacking force came on, I rolled and got one of the long table edges, the ships came on within six inches of the edge and at full speed heading for the space station.
Having small ships gave the defender a big advantage for activation during the turn as it had eight dice compared to three for the attacker, but if the attacking force can hang on and survive for a few turns they should be able to put out enough shots to take out the spacestation…. That’s if I can roll good enough dice to hit!!!
Turn one saw a load of long range shots with only a few doing any damage on both sides, the space station did take a couple of hits, but other than that not much else happened… ok two of the attacker’s missiles got through and destroyed a corvette, I hate missiles!!
Turn two….
Some great shooting by the attacking force has nearly taken half the hull points from the spacestation already, getting no shields for this game has really made it hard for the defenders.
The first of the docked corvettes entered the game and slowly pulled away from the spacestation.
One of the heavy cruisers failed to get it’s shields online for this turn so it took lots of hits, but it just would not die! But it did take a critical hit on its engines which reduced its maximum speed down to four inches.
Also, the battlecruiser was really starting to pound the defenders, it almost took out the frigate and the light cruiser with its banks of lasers.
The spacestation launched its two flights of fighter bombers, they streaked off towards the battlecruiser to see if they could deal out enough damage to end the attack early.
Turn three….
Huge explosions ripped through the battlecruiser as the fighter bombers scored hit after hit, the heroic near suicidal bombing runs paid off as the dead hulk of the battlecruiser went spinning off into space…. That was the best I have rolled for a long while, from the four remaining bombers I got nine hits!! and two critical hits.
One of the heavy cruisers was also destroyed by concentrated fire from the spacestation and all the remaining defending force.
It wasn’t looking good for the last heavy cruiser, it needed to get it’s dice to activate before the defenders destroyed it.
Turn four….
The fighter bombers swooped in to see if they could repeat their success of the previous turn, the heavy cruisers PDS took out two more fighters, which probably saved its life as the last two fighters didn’t manage to do much damage at all.
The spacestation managed to get off a missile and it hit the heavy cruiser, but again for only a little damage, but it did take down its shields with its lasers leaving the heavy cruiser defenceless against the defence force, it needed to activate now to win the game…. or be destroyed.
And out of the bag came its activation dice, it fired all its side lasers into the spacestation doing just enough damage to take out the communication’s system and win the game for the attacker!!
Wow that was close, with the fighters taking out the battlecruiser like that I thought the attackers were finished, if some of the defenders had got their dice and had activated first it would have been all over for the last heavy cruiser, there were eight dice in the bag and only one was the attackers!
That is a very hard scenario for the defenders especially when you roll for the spacestation’s status and you do not get any shields, that means every laser hit hurts, and you soon get down to half hull points giving the win to the attacker.
For anyone interested in seeing what the rules are like, they are on sale here – http://www.wargamevault.com/product/210571/Stars–Lasers?src=latest_rule_sets
John McManis
Hi,
How many pages are in Stars and Lasers? Is there a section for constructing my own ships?
Thank you,
John
Mac
Hi John,
There are 49 pages in the rules, but lots of those are for ships, advanced rules and scenarios, and at the moment there is not a section for constructing your own ships…. but there are sheets for 5 space stations, 12 ships, plus alien bio ships.
In the supplement there are 7 more ships plus another space station, and I am almost finished writing the “pirate” supplement which has several more ships, so plenty to work with to start with.
But I am also putting together complete fleets of ships with different weapon fits which I will put up on this site as free downloads… I am also working on another alien race!
The ability to put together your own ships is something I have been thinking about, but it is just not going to happen just yet.
Mac