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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:35 pm Post subject: CoastCon XXXII - Battle Royale - After Action Report |
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It took a couple of days to get caught up at work, so I haven't had time to write this up until now.
The next post will be a summary of the 5-player Battle Royale held after lunch on Saturday at CoastCon.
Due to time lapse, I may be slightly off on the minor details (but someone will correct me) - but the major details are correct. Also, remember that this is from the Romulan prespective. I tried to keep track of all five sides, but in the action - some of the events may have escaped my notice.
And now, without further ado - here is the battle: _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF |
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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:48 pm Post subject: |
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CoastCon XXXII
Fed Comm Battle #2
Battlegroup Murfreesboro vs the World!
This game was a 1 on 1 on 1 on 1 on 1, single ship, battle royal.
Malleman was flying the Federation Commnad Cruiser
Wedge_Hammersteel was flying the Kzinti Command Cruiser
Hod K'el was flying the Orion Battle Raider (1x Ph-G, 4x Pl-D)
Crimin was flying the Gorn Battlecruiser
leaving poor Scoutdad to fly the Romulan SparrowHawk Light Cruiser.
Everyone started on opposing (as best possible) edges of the map.
Assuming Hod K'el was at map north (or 0 degrees)
Malleman started near 60 - 65 degrees
Wedge started near 150 degrees
Scoutdad started near 200 degrees
Crimin started near 265 degrees
Turn one saw Malleman, Wedge, and Crimin headed for the center of the map. Scoutdad also headed towards the center, but kept slipping to the SE corner to slow his rate of progression - hoping to allow the other three ships to close, engage, and give him a good shot at a damaged vessel. Hod K'el turned west and traveled along the north edge of the map... avoiding all attempts at closing during the opening phase of the game.
Several drones were launched at the Orion from long range (from both the Kzinti and the Fed), but will eventually be dealt with by Plasma Ds.
Towards the end of the turn, the Kzinti crossed the bow of the Fed cruiser and fire was exchanged. Malleman fired a full Alpha strike - hitting with all phasers and 1! (yes, 1! photon). Wedge responded with phasers and disruptors.. only to realize that he'd fired a full salvo of drones early in the turn at the Orion and couldn't launch at the Fed for the full-on effect this turn. Both ships suffered some minor damage, but best of all - the
Fed would be on a reload cycle during the next turn.
Turn Two:
The Kzinti turned towards Galactic north (and the Orion), while the Fed continued towards mid-map. Seeing a Federation Cruiser without photons decided the Romulan course of action and the SparrowHawk turned towards his prey. The Gorn, who had been closing with the Romulan saw a kitty-kat headed towards him and chose to focus his attentions somewhere other than the Romulan.
Hod K'el handily dealt with all of the drones and tuned 180 degrees and continued to cruise alone on the north edge of the map.
The SparrowHawk closed with the Federation CC, but at an oblique angle that would allow the Fed to continue moving southward while the Romulan seemd to be maneuvering for an up-the-kilt shot on the Kzinti. Just as movement shifted the LS weapons of the Federation CC out of arc, the SparrowHawk turned into the Fed's #3 shield and fired a full spread of phasers. This was, of course met with some return fire - but many of the phasers on the CC were no out of arc.
During the launch phase - a Plasma-S and a Plasma-F were launched against the Fed ship, hitting the already downed #3 shield. Massive internals reduced the titianium white space craft to a scorched mess - but still didn't pull it's teeth.
Two more impulses of movement and one tractor beam later locked these two units into what looked to be a battle to the death. The launch phase saw the SpH's final Plasma-F fired into the #3 shield and all remining power dumped into the nearly overloaded engines of a Romulan
shuttlecraft.
[Unfortunately, this was the moment that Murphy chose to visit and a certain player confused SFB with Fed Comm...]
Rather than combining move costs and calculating psuedo-speeds ala' SFB; the player who spent the most energy tokens on baseline movement (SpH - speed 24 at 3/4 move / Fed CC - speed 24 at 1 move cost) gets to control movement. So, rather than immediately moving the CC into the
suicide shuttle on a down shield, the Federation player began to drag me acoss the map backward. Which was OK as I was now out of plasmas and moving away from the other three ships.
The Federation return fire dropped the #2 shield and did 3 internals - left warp - impulse - right warp!!!
The Kzinti launched more drones at the Orion. The Gorn and the Kzinti traded long range phaser shots for shield damage only.
Turn three:
The Romulan maintained the tractor beam across the turn break and plotted speed 24. The Federation player plotted speed zero (very few power boxes remained), so the Romulan now controlled movement. The Federation ship was tractored back towards the suicide shuttle.
While this was going on, the Gorn - Orion - and Kzinti were jockeying for position near the north edge of the map - but no one managed to gain a clear superiority.
Just as the shuttle was about to impact, the Federation player paid a point of power and used it to turn a fresh shield towards the imminent impact. The Romulan fired all his offside phasers to weaken the shield, but it wasn't enough. The Fed CC survived the explosion - although it was a near thing.
Thinking this vessel would still be around to finish off later, the Romulan circled towards the south and continued to re-arm the plasmas.
Turn Four:
The Romulan circled the two large asteroids along the south map edge while reloading. The Gorn, having serarated from the Kzinti / Orion struggle found himself all alone near the northwest corner of the map and pointed at a lone Romulan (with no plasmas armed!). The Kzinti was several hexes behind the Orion as they approached the eastern edge of the board. The remainder of this turn saw each unit moving closer to it's intended target... while the slowly drifting hulk that had once been a Federation Command Cruiser slowly began repairs to it's primary power systems...
Turn Five:
The Kzinti continued chasing the Orion, launching drones - only to have them swatted down by Plasma-D's.
The Gorn continued closing on the Romulan.
The Romulan attempted to use the various large asteroids / one hex planets scattered across the map as cover from long-range phaser sniping. When the range closed to a short enough distance to prevent this, the Romulan declared evasive maneuvering.
Just as the Gorn committed himself to rounding the final planet and it looked as if the Romulan would be facing a fully locked-and-loaded Gorn BC at point blank range, the Romulan sneakily applied a bit of deceleration, and using his superior turn mode - slipped in behind the planet. The turn ended with the Romulan facing north and the Gorn facing south with a planetoid between them!
The Federation CC continued to repair power and headed for his "home" map edge.
Turn Six:
This turn saw the Romulan complete his rearming while headed towards mid-map at high speed.
The barge of a Gorn spent half a turn changing his direction by 180 degrees and took off in pursuit of that "wascally Womulan!"
The Orion rounded a planetoid and headed towards mid-map (and the Romulan) with the Kzin hot on his tail.
The Romulan paid 3/4 energy tokens to accelerate every impuse, in an attempt to close on the ships in front and to pull away from the Gorn, who was still making his "low-energy turn".
The Federation CC continued to repair power and headed for his "home" map edge.
Turn Seven:
This turn saw the Romulan closing on the Kzinti/Orion conga line . As the Orion rounded the small blue planetoid shown in the picture and the Kzinti committed himself to a pursuit course, the Romulan selected the Kzinti as his next target...
As the range between the two units closed to point-blank, a full volley of phasers and a Plasma-S plus a Plasma-F nearly did in the Kzinti.
As the Romulan swept around the Kzinti and headed north - the final Plasma-F and a suicide shuttle with 2-points of power were launched...
The plasma ripped through the previously downed shield and removed all remaining system and weapon boxes - leaving only two control boxes and two frame hits. Two impulses later, the suicide shuttle took care of those.
The Orion quickly turned and began to pursue the Romulan as he headed west along the northern edge of the map.
The Federation CC continued to repair power and headed for his "home" map edge.
Turn Eight:
This turn saw the Romulan running for his life along the western edge of the map. The Romulan once again declared evasive maneuvering to prevent long-range phaser sniping.
The Orion "hyped" his engines and began pursuing the Romulan.
The Gorn, having finally completed his turn began headed towards the western edge of the map.
The Federation CC contiuned to repair power and headed for his "home" map edge.
Impulse 8 saw both the Orion and the Gorn fire phasers are the Romulan. Despite the EM, the Gorn damaged shield #6 and the Orion damaged shield #4. The Plasma-D's launched earlier in the turn struck the Romulan, who maneuvered to take them on the #5 shield.
Turn Nine:
In desperation, the Romulan quick-loaded the Plasma-S as a two-turn-F... continued EM, and continued accelerating and slipping along the map edge.
As the range shortened, the Orion launched Plasma-D's and fired phasers at the Romulan - dropping the #4 shield and doing some serious internal damage.
The Romulan dropped EM, and launched his one Plasma-F at the rapidly closing Gorn before turning to take the Plasma-D's on the weakened #5 shield, dropping it and causing even more internal damage.
The Gorn fired phasers as soon as the EM went down, dropping the #1 shield and causing additional internal damage. He then launched Plasma torps and turned to try to avoid the oncoming Orion.
Just a few movement pulses later, the Romulan SparrowHawk became one with the universe as it ceased to exist...
As a last bit of irony, it's Plasma-F did impact the Gorn and do a burnthrough damage point.
The Federation CC continued to repair power and headed for his "home" map edge.
Turn Ten:
After looking at the situation, the game was called with the Gorn and the Orion sharing a victory.
The Kzinti was the first unit taken out...
The Romulan was the second taken out...
The Federation CC could not have reached the map edge before being rundown by the Orion with
the "hyped" engines...
The Orion had minor shield damage...
The Gorn had a few internals from various hits.
All in all, a very good game. I would rather have had a FireHawk to make it heavy cruiser versus heavy cruiser, but the cloaking device increased the points too much to make that a valid choice - even though I didn't use it a single time.
Not too bad a showing for the only 3/4 move cost Light Cruiser in a Heavy Cruiser battle. _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF |
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djdood Commodore
Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 3413 Location: Seattle, WA
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Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 12:24 am Post subject: |
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Quite a fight. Nice report-out.
Ten turns; How long did this take to play out for you guys?
The nice thing about cons is the long session time available. My weeknight game sessions with my group never have more than 3.5 - 4 hours available, so we rarely have a session last beyond turn 6. _________________
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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 12:29 am Post subject: |
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We started around 1 or 1:30 and ended up around 5:30 or 6:00.
Call it 5 hours - tops. _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
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Crimin Lieutenant JG
Joined: 12 Apr 2007 Posts: 48 Location: New Orleans, LA
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Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:22 am Post subject: |
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And those 5 hours included stops in between turns where someone would run off to the dealer room "just for a second" and occasional war stories being swapped.
From the Gorn perspective - I started out the game going slowly, just waiting to see who would end up where. With the Fed and Kzinti coming together quickly I figured I would try to isolate the Orion in the Northwest corner of the map. We were both heading north with me further to the east when the Kzin, now free of the Fed, launched a wave of drones at me and I realized he was on an interecept course of his own, to pin me against the Orion.
I sent an S torp the Orion's way (which he managed to duck behind a planet and avoid) and turned around and headed south. As I was on the way down there I saw that the Romulan was heading that way and I wanted to try to get to him while he was still reloading, but by the time I had gotten around and headed that way the Kzin was back again!
I outran him and dodged to the southeast corner, intent on pinning the Romulan against the corner, but some very fancy flying on his part made me overshoot and not even able to get a shot off. Once again, a planet got in the way.
Finally I was able to get the Battle Barge turned around and intercepted what was left of the Rom on the way out of the Rom-Orion-Kzinti firefight. After destroying the Rom I managed to outrun his last F-torp, and it hit just as the warhead strength dropped to zero.
I had hoped that someone would have managed to damage the Orion by that time, but a fully functional Orion vs. a fully functional Gorn sounded like a fairly long, drawn out fight so we called it there.
It was a fun battle, if only because I've never done so much maneuvering in a Gorn barge before.
Though it seemed like everywhere I turned there was either a planet or a Kzinti cruiser in the way. |
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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:28 am Post subject: |
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That's just called good manuevering! _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF |
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malleman Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 12 Jan 2008 Posts: 307 Location: Lafayette, LA
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Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:40 am Post subject: |
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Talk about a long 5 hours, being that I was pretty much taken out of the game in the second turn. Hey atleast I gave someone the honor of taking my ship out .
Anyway here is a pic of the FC players at CoastCon.
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg269/malisalleman/049.jpg
Top row: Scoutdad's son in law, malleman, Wedge_hammersteel, Hod K'el
Bottom row: Scoutdad and Crimin |
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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 4:08 am Post subject: |
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You weren't taken out... that ship was still flying long after mine had gone the way of the dodo!
Son-in-laws name is Josh.
I had a great time guys. Thanks. I'm looking forward to next year. _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
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Hod K'el Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 21 Aug 2008 Posts: 301 Location: Lafayette LA
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Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 4:10 pm Post subject: CC XXXII |
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I had a great time, guys! Hope to see all of you next year!
Have to say, I like flying the Orion BR with four (4) PL-D's and a PH-G in the B slot. Gives great options! And during the multi-turn game, I reloaded my two (2) wing racks. Fun little ship! Now, if I only had an LVS! (Mike West...hint, hint!) _________________ HoD K'el
IMV Black Dagger
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Life is not victory;
Death is not defeat! |
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Wolverin61 Commander
Joined: 16 Nov 2008 Posts: 495 Location: Mississippi
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Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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Sounds like a good time was had by all!
Wish I could've made it. _________________ "His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:46 pm Post subject: |
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There's always next year!!! _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF |
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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 7:10 pm Post subject: |
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CoastCon XXXIII*
*That's 33 for the roman numerically challenged out there. _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF |
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Starfury Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 302
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Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 9:43 pm Post subject: |
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Question: I'm running a FC game at Kublacon (www.kublacon.com) this year and I'm going to "borrow" this for my game. If you disallow use of the cloak would the Firehawk be a "fair" replacement?
Last year when I ran FC one guy ran out and bought Klingon Border. I call that a win. |
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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:02 pm Post subject: |
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Starfury wrote: | Question: I'm running a FC game at Kublacon (www.kublacon.com) this year and I'm going to "borrow" this for my game. If you disallow use of the cloak would the Firehawk be a "fair" replacement?
Last year when I ran FC one guy ran out and bought Klingon Border. I call that a win. |
I would have thought the Firehawk a fair replacement anyway...
My SparrowHawk was the sole light cruiser in a field of strike/heavy/command cruisers. _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF |
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Hod K'el Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 21 Aug 2008 Posts: 301 Location: Lafayette LA
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Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 12:34 pm Post subject: Insights |
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Ah ha! So you think an Orion BR is a strike cruiser, huh? If grasshopper lives, grasshopper learns... _________________ HoD K'el
IMV Black Dagger
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Life is not victory;
Death is not defeat! |
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