This was a scenario our group came up with many years ago for SFB and was an easy port-over to FC.
As we all know, Cestus III was the site where a Federation outpost was obliterated by a Gorn ship because the Gorns saw it as in incursion into their space. The Gorns also lured the nearest Federation CA into a trap, but were forced to retreat. The Fed CA engaged in a hot pursuit. The situation was finally resolved by a third party, but the ships involved were transported hundreds of light years away. It was always assumed that the subspace radio messages from both ships reached their respective fleet HQs and that was was averted.
But what if the ships were so far out of range that it took their messages too long to reach their HQs? Or what if the messages were somehow jammed? The Gorns would have assumed an enemy force had established a base in their space and the Feds would have assumed their pursuing vessel was destroyed and that invasion was imminent.
In this scenario, the Gorns responded by sending two escort cruisers and one light cruiser (app. 400 pts squadron scale). The Feds responded by sending a command cruiser, a battle tug, and a frigate.
The Feds were stationed near the planet on one side of the map and the Gorns entered from the opposite side. The Feds charged the Gorns, hoping to knock one out immediately before they had a chance to complete the arming of their pl-S's (this was the first time we had used plasmas in FC).
On Impulse 7, the Gorns launched a whole bunch of pl-F's at the Fed CC, whereupon it HETed and ran. The BT and FF continued on and unloaded 1 overloaded photon, 7 regular photons, and a few ph-1's into the largest Gorn ship, doing considerable damage (the BT missed on 2 of its photons). The 3 Gorn ships were spaced 1 hex apart and each fired at the BT, but at each of its 3 forward shields. The end result was a fairly crippled Gorn ship and a Fed BT with about all of its forward shields blown away.
On Turn 2 the FF HET'ed and ran after the fleeing CC, but the BT continued forward and behind the 2 Gorn escort cruisers. The light cruiser veered off and out of the action to get its forward shield out of anyone's line of fire. At that point, the game had to be called. The Feds had a CC and FF untouched and the BT with light damage. The Gorns had their largest ship severely damaged and the other two ships relatively untouched. We thought the BT would do some damage before it went down, but that the remaining Fed ships would be able to hand a defeat to the remaining Gorn ships.
After-action report: The Battle for Cestus III
Moderators: mjwest, Albiegamer
1. We play everything in squadron scale.
2. A "homebrew" SS ship "card" was made for it. It involved using the saucer section of a DD, the engines from a CA, and several graphic modifications.
The original FJ Fed DN could have been used (or even the regular DN), but we didn't go that route. I really wanted to use the so-called "middle years" type of ships, but they wouldn't have made much difference anyway. The Fed MY ships wouldn't have drones and I don't know what the difference would be with the Gorns.
That BT ship diagram really raised a lot of eyebrows, though!
2. A "homebrew" SS ship "card" was made for it. It involved using the saucer section of a DD, the engines from a CA, and several graphic modifications.
The original FJ Fed DN could have been used (or even the regular DN), but we didn't go that route. I really wanted to use the so-called "middle years" type of ships, but they wouldn't have made much difference anyway. The Fed MY ships wouldn't have drones and I don't know what the difference would be with the Gorns.
That BT ship diagram really raised a lot of eyebrows, though!
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