SFU Horror stories...

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:25 am

A comment in another thread got me thinking, so I thought I'd share (and give y'all a chance to share) some of my SFU horror stories.

Here is the original comment that kicked this whole thing off:

...Then there was one time I put a note up at the local game store to advertise wanting to play. A really huge guy showed up at my house one Friday night. The first words out of his mouth were, "Man you have a Toyota Supra! I'm going to steal your car when I leave, man!"

Things went downhill from there...

We've always been rather lucky. We had a core group of 8 SFB players from the mid-80's until just a few years ago. Then we started getting married, getting careers, getting degrees and moving, getting enlisted, getting kids, etc...
In order to keep the numbers up, we've tried Starlist, message boards, and notes as FLGS's and college venues. Through various sources, we've managed to find over 2 dozen people that are willign to play SFB (if their schedule permits) - some are better players than others...

I once got a call from someone who was part of a group that played once a week at one of the local gaming venues. The entire group of 4 players wanted to expand their horizons and were willing to play a Nashville vs. Murfreesboro squadron action... KEWL! The gauntlet had been thrown.

A couple of group emails we settled on a year and forces... We got Lyrans, they got Kzinti and the forces were resolved to be 750 points a side and all rules in the MRB were in play. A date was set and we agreed to arrive with our best forces laid out and ready to go.

The five of us that were going mulled over our choices, selected our forces and Commanders options... Mike Xeroxed the appropriate SSDs and I prepped the appropriate miniatures.

Finally the big night arrived, we showed up and set out our forces... then they set out theirs and we started playing...

The first complaint... They didn't use EW, so our scout was a useless block of lead with no weapons and sensors that couldn't be used. Bummer!, but we felt we could overcome...
Complaint Two: We launched PF's..wait a minute. Those aren't real ships, so we've never allowed them they said. OK - it's the work of 5 minutes to replace those points with the equivalent value in ships
Complaint Three: You can't swap the PFT out for another ship. It is a ship and you guys took it... huh? How is that even fair, we asked? But, OK - let's just play.
Complaint Four: Y'all didn't bring a carrier did you? Cause fighters slow the game down too much, so we dont use them. Wait a minute... you chose Kzinti! All those drones don't slow the game down, but fighters do?
Them: Oh, we have a special house rule we use for drones. They work like direct fire weapons so you don't have to use counters. HUH! WTF? How many CO points does that upgrade cost? Nothing. Every drone uses it, so it balances out.

We surrendered, packed up our toys, went home to play real SFB, and never tried to get those guys in another game again.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:26 am

So let's keep it rolling. I know most everyone out there has a similar tale to tell... just change the names to protect the innocent (or the guilty, as the case may be)

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:38 am

One of my favorite "cross group" encounters involved my group from one university [EDIT: Yes, this was a long time ago], and another group from another nearby university. As above, we agreed on the empires to use (us: Klingons; them: Feds) and a point value. We pre-agreed to no fighters/PFs/Scouts.

When we got there, we had a C7 and some number of D5s. While this is now know as an infamously munchkin fleet, it was nothing compared to their Fed fleet. They had a BC of some flavor, a pair of DEs, and some other stuff. We chose to ignore the fact that the DEs weren't actually escorting anything.

We slaughtered them. My favorite moment was when someone in their group arrived late and said, "I thought you guys took two DEs, not just one." The only response was a curt, "Shut up!"

So, while this wasn't exactly an SFU Horror Story for my group, I am sure it was for their group.

Needless to say, they didn't call us after that.

terryoc · Post by **terryoc** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:38 am

"all rules in the MRB were in play"

Apparently not!

I wish I had enough of a gaming group to have any horror stories. Alas, no.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:44 am

terryoc wrote:"all rules in the MRB were in play"

Apparently not!

I'm guessing they had a house rule MRB and we weren't provided with a current copy of it!

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:12 am

I'm lucky. I don't really have any FedCom "horror stories" yet. Everybody I've played FedCom with has been pretty decent folk (even when they crush my ships and my poor little ego).

The only SFB "horror story" I have was my very first introduction to playing the game.

I knew of SFB (and had been buying a few minis here and there) for a couple of years, before I ended up back with some friends I hadn't seen in years (we had all aged from grade school to junior High by this point - yes, this story is also very, very old).

I had never actually seen the game itself, other than a very brief "over-the-shoulder" at the FLGS for a few minutes at a time, once or twice. I had never played any "wargames" at all at this point and had never even played any more-complex "mainstream" stuff like Risk.

While I had been away, my two friends had started playing SFB pretty regularly. When they found out about my budding interest, they were excited to set up a game immediately. I was too, until I saw some things...

The "rulebook" (this was Commander's Edition era) was more than a bit intimidating, but they promised they would walk me through it.

The EA form was, well... I had no clue. I was about 12 years old (give or take) and hadn't even heard of a "tax form", let alone a game sheet that looked like one. I was quite a bit confused.

Then the SSD for the ship ship they wanted me to use came out. To 'lil 'ol me, it was like a crossword puzzle on serious steroids and I couldn't make heads or tails of it (remember, I had never seen anything like this at this point).

You see, these two wanted to do a big multi-ship engagement. Their idea of a "simple training game" was to put me into a Klingon B-10 Battleship as my very first SFB experience, while they took it on with several ships each, while "explaining the rules as we go...".

I don't remember anything of that game, other than
a) I was desperately trying to understand what was happening

and
b) I lost, miserably.

I do recall them not letting me fire because I hadn't allocated power to the weapons (which might have had something to do with them not explaining energy allocation before we started).

Eventually, I did get chance to fire, but missed with pretty much everything, as they had neglected to tell me about the weapon charts with the ranges. They also never bothered to tell me what all those boxes labeled "drone" did, etc.

It was all over in an hour.

Some "friends".

I eventually found other games as my gateway into wargaming (OGRE, GEV, Battletech, etc.). However, it took me years to get the courage up to try the SFU again. I kept up with reading the SFB modules and the board, but never played. FedCom is the thing that got me out of the reading chair and up to the gaming table.

Post by **Steve Cole** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:24 pm

You have all heard my funny story. I was on the road and stopped in to see some SFB players I knew by mail. (No internet back then.) They were ready to play when the Klingon player stood up and solemnly intoned something about his drone racks. I asked what that was all about and he said that the rulebook said "unless stated otherwise...."

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:00 pm

Steve Cole wrote:You have all heard my funny story. I was on the road and stopped in to see some SFB players I knew by mail. (No internet back then.) They were ready to play when the Klingon player stood up and solemnly intoned something about his drone racks. I asked what that was all about and he said that the rulebook said "unless stated otherwise...."

I can't believe I've never heard that one before... but it's freakin' hilarious.

The Klingon player wasn't Hod K'El was it?

just kidding guys.

Actually, I know some rules lawyers that would actually try something like this...

Kang · Post by **Kang** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:11 pm

This one isn't exactly a horror story but it's funny. At least, it was at the time.

We had this player in our SFB group who for some reason couldn't cope with a battle-damaged ship. Very often, he'd take some damage, maybe lose a couple of phasers, a torp and a couple of warp boxes, and he'd get so despondent he'd self-destruct.

Honestly, that was what he did.

I don't think he had the imagination, ideas and/or tactical sense to make something of a bad situation and try to pull the game back; whatever the reason, we had the joke that as soon as a starship's officer-on-deck shouted out 'Admiral on the Bridge!', that someone on that bridge had to go for the big red button.

Anyway that's the background, which was considerably longer than the story proper.

He took about 25 internals on a B-10 battleship. That's all.

The rest, as they say, is history. As was the B-10.....

Kang · Post by **Kang** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:20 pm

djdood: I've played with games 'teachers' like that at conventions. Where's the vistory in 'defeating' a clueless novice?

These people should be shot with extreme prejudice aforethought

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 5:21 pm

I had never heard SVC's story either. This thread is fun.

Kang - I take my "introduction" as a learning-experience now. I'm far from perfect, but that self-aggrandizing "training game" I got is always on my mind when I teach FedCom to new people. I so do not want to be the guys who did that to me.

USS Enterprise · Post by **USS Enterprise** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:52 pm

A horror story for my friend.

He was playing the Klingon D7, and I was the Fed CA.

I tried to explain the Saber Dance to him, and staying at range 15. He fired everything, then closed to point blank....

Game was called during the second turn.

Bolo_MK_XL · Post by **Bolo_MK_XL** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:52 pm

Guess the closest horror story would be the Battle of the Giants ---

He had his entire fighter wing out, chasing one of the Dominators, the other Dominator displaced, dropped all its satellites where next turn the CVA was crippled --

Later the B-10 closed to meet the first Dominator as it rounded the planet --- after both took some damage, a good roll (bad for the Klingon) displaced the B-10 right into the planet -- the CX and the escorts took off followed by the remaining fighters ---

Then there was the B-10 vs the Howler group --- not much needs to be said about that one

gambler1650 · Post by **gambler1650** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:05 pm

Couple of horror stories (SFB)...

1. A friend, when our group first discovered fighters, was flying a ROC based fleet against Hydrans without having looked too closely at how much fighters could differ from Admin Shuttles in armament. 12 St-2's got to Range 1 on an aft shield. Other player said 'firing'. He said, "What do they do again?" ROC goes boom.

2. Played a free for all with dreadnoughts. I secretly had a truce with one of the players. As a Kzinti I decided to do a bit of misdirection and launched a couple of drones in the general direction of my 'ally'. We didn't allow strategy discussions during a turn, only between turns, and I didn't realize that the way I moved my drones could also have been viewed as being targeted on another DN. So my ally never labbed or fired on them and they hit. Mind you, they never even broke the shield, but he turned in to me and delivered a point blank alpha strike even when I made it clear over a turn break that I wouldn't fire on him and was sorry for the miscommunication.. I do of course see his point too.

3. First ever game of SFB, I got a Fed CA in a pick up fleet battle. I got bored with following the fleet and turned in to the enemy without any help. Fired at Range 4 of the enemy fleet's Fed DN (yup, they had a Fed ship too). Think I hit with 1 torp. He got to range 1 and hit with everything. I watched the rest of the game.

4. When I first discovered plasma ships, I decided my tactics couldn't be defeated on an open map. I announced this before and during the game quite often and loudly. In other words, I was being far too arrogant. Finally, after two battle passes in which my side didn't take any damage, the between turn strategy session for the enemy side apparently consisted of "We're in agreement right? We kill Robert this turn." And kill me they did, though I almost managed a maneuver which would have taken out an enemy with me, but a rule regarding emergency decel/HETs or possibly forgetting that HET was warp power (it's been too long) kept me from doing it.

pinecone · Post by **pinecone** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:08 pm

Alright: Me and my dad were playing the Klingon attack scenario where there is a D6/E4 vs. CL defending a planet (Fleet Scale). Baisically, he charged in with both ships, letting me get behind him. I blew the antidisestablishmentaryinism out of his D6, finishing it with a phaser attcak next turn. The E4 wasn't a problem either. Once my photon was loaded again I blew him apart.

Horror for him, a once in a lifetime moment of truimph against 2 to 1 odds for me

.