2 on 1 battle
Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 1:44 am
Had an interesting experience last Saturday. Two guys who were part of our old SFB gaming group in the early years of this century contacted to say they wanted to learn FC. We met at the local library in a meeting room to go over the differences between the two games and then set out to play.
They wanted to team up against me, so we settled on my Klingon C7 vs. their Gorn CL and Fed NCL. I started in the middle of the south end of a 6 panel small hex map and they started in the two north corners. I had never flown a C7, but they were not used to the nuances of the game system.
Their initial strategy was to try to come together and present a united front, but it soon fell apart as I continued on a due north route toward where they would unite. They soon realized the 2-turn arming sequence for their Fed's photons would not mesh with their Gorn's 3-turn plasma arming.
The Gorn fell back and the Fed fled toward the east, so I took some long range pot shots at the Gorn. The dice rolls were in his favor and he didn't take too much shield damage, but his forward shield was noticeably weakened. He did some minor damage to my #6 shield. I launched a full volley of drones at him on the last impulse to give him something to think about during Turn 2.
The Gorn continued to dodge around and about midway in Turn 2 an opportunity presented itself with the Fed NCL. He had approached with his photons armed, hoping to get a close shot at me. Due to the nature of the sub-pulse movement and his not wanting to spend energy for deceleration, we ended up passing by each other. Unfortunately for him, his photons were now out of arc, and I HET'ed to get him in my FA. I didn't have much energy to waste, so I fired standard disruptors and all bearing phasers using directed targeting on his weapons. These knocked down his rear shield and did 21 internals, including 2 photons and 5 phasers. He spent the remainder of the game running and trying to keep out of close range, but close enough so that he could jump back in if I put myself in a vulnerable position. The Gorn dealt with the drones with phasers and a tractor beam. I launched drones at the NCL, but he had saved enough energy to use a tractor and phaser the remainder. Again the Gorn took a couple of long range shots and did some minor damage to my shield #4, but not enough to penetrate.
On Turn 3 the Gorn ship and my C7 closed on one another cautiously. He finally launched an F and both S's. I fired every bearing weapon that I could and then kept up my speed to stay ahead of the plasmas. The Fed licked his wounds somewhere off on the right side of the map.
On Turn 4 I continued evading the plasmas while trying to circle back on the Gorn. The NCL bobbed around out of range, not wanting to give battle. I used the opportunity to reload 3 drone racks (using the new rule for partial reloading). The C7 really has a nice repair rating of 6. The plasmas played out and I let one hit me for a couple of hits as I cut back toward the Gorn before he could rearm again.
I tried closing with the Gorn on Turn 5, but he was pretty good at staying away. Meanwhile, the Fed began slowly closing the distance. He had repaired his right phasers and had reloaded his photons. The Gorn and I got to within 10 hexes, so I directed fire on his weapons, hoping to knock out at least one plasma, but terrible rolls only allowed 1 internal. The directed targeting worked, but it was only for 1 phaser. Another spread of drones was launched at the Gorn to make him think twice about closing to launch plasma on the next turn.
The library was within 45 minutes of closing as Turn 6 began, so I think we all figured it was now or never. My C7 was coming down the middle of the map from north to south. The Gorn was off somewhat to the west side and the Fed was closing from a greater distance from the east. I chose to go after the Gorn since he had already sustained significant shield damage and some internals rather than the Fed who had pretty fresh forward shields, armed photons, and operational phasers to the front.
The Gorn and I closed to about range 4 after ee had managed to successfully turn away from the drones. They were closing fast and he couldn't afford to hang around much longer. Since this would be the last time he would be in my FA arc, I decided to let it rip with everything I could muster power for. The rolls were again bad (many 5's and 6's) and he was able to launch plasma. Now I had something to think about. Plasma would be fast approaching from my right side and the Fed NCL from my left.
I had to dole out my energy carefully to keep ahead of the plasma, but also had to draw closer to the NCL. With just a couple of impulses to go, he fired fully overloaded photons and 4 Ph-1s into my #6. Both photons hit and he ended up scoring somewhere around 30 internals (which took out mainly inconsequential systems, some power, and minor weapons).
At that point, both the Gorn player and Fed player said they would disengage because they figured the Klingon ship would be able to keep up its turn by turn fire while they would take multiple turns to reload. The Fed was shaken by the fact that he had lost so many weapons in one volley and figured it could happen again quickly. The Gorn bemoaned the fact that he had few phasers that could bear in any one direction at the same time and that he had to wait 3 turns to arm his plasma topedoes. He, too, thought that if he was the continual target that he could lose a lot in a hurry. I was willing to call it a draw, but they said they thought it would have been a marginal victory for the C7. We all had a great time and they really enjoyed the new game. One said he was going to buy Klingon Border and look into other products, too.
It was fun to fly the C7. It is such an awesome cruiser and has few drawbacks. As with any other ship, it can't do everything all at once. That was my only frustration with it. The light cruisers were more maneuverable at higher speeds and that made it much more difficult to bring the C7 around to close with them.
They wanted to team up against me, so we settled on my Klingon C7 vs. their Gorn CL and Fed NCL. I started in the middle of the south end of a 6 panel small hex map and they started in the two north corners. I had never flown a C7, but they were not used to the nuances of the game system.
Their initial strategy was to try to come together and present a united front, but it soon fell apart as I continued on a due north route toward where they would unite. They soon realized the 2-turn arming sequence for their Fed's photons would not mesh with their Gorn's 3-turn plasma arming.
The Gorn fell back and the Fed fled toward the east, so I took some long range pot shots at the Gorn. The dice rolls were in his favor and he didn't take too much shield damage, but his forward shield was noticeably weakened. He did some minor damage to my #6 shield. I launched a full volley of drones at him on the last impulse to give him something to think about during Turn 2.
The Gorn continued to dodge around and about midway in Turn 2 an opportunity presented itself with the Fed NCL. He had approached with his photons armed, hoping to get a close shot at me. Due to the nature of the sub-pulse movement and his not wanting to spend energy for deceleration, we ended up passing by each other. Unfortunately for him, his photons were now out of arc, and I HET'ed to get him in my FA. I didn't have much energy to waste, so I fired standard disruptors and all bearing phasers using directed targeting on his weapons. These knocked down his rear shield and did 21 internals, including 2 photons and 5 phasers. He spent the remainder of the game running and trying to keep out of close range, but close enough so that he could jump back in if I put myself in a vulnerable position. The Gorn dealt with the drones with phasers and a tractor beam. I launched drones at the NCL, but he had saved enough energy to use a tractor and phaser the remainder. Again the Gorn took a couple of long range shots and did some minor damage to my shield #4, but not enough to penetrate.
On Turn 3 the Gorn ship and my C7 closed on one another cautiously. He finally launched an F and both S's. I fired every bearing weapon that I could and then kept up my speed to stay ahead of the plasmas. The Fed licked his wounds somewhere off on the right side of the map.
On Turn 4 I continued evading the plasmas while trying to circle back on the Gorn. The NCL bobbed around out of range, not wanting to give battle. I used the opportunity to reload 3 drone racks (using the new rule for partial reloading). The C7 really has a nice repair rating of 6. The plasmas played out and I let one hit me for a couple of hits as I cut back toward the Gorn before he could rearm again.
I tried closing with the Gorn on Turn 5, but he was pretty good at staying away. Meanwhile, the Fed began slowly closing the distance. He had repaired his right phasers and had reloaded his photons. The Gorn and I got to within 10 hexes, so I directed fire on his weapons, hoping to knock out at least one plasma, but terrible rolls only allowed 1 internal. The directed targeting worked, but it was only for 1 phaser. Another spread of drones was launched at the Gorn to make him think twice about closing to launch plasma on the next turn.
The library was within 45 minutes of closing as Turn 6 began, so I think we all figured it was now or never. My C7 was coming down the middle of the map from north to south. The Gorn was off somewhat to the west side and the Fed was closing from a greater distance from the east. I chose to go after the Gorn since he had already sustained significant shield damage and some internals rather than the Fed who had pretty fresh forward shields, armed photons, and operational phasers to the front.
The Gorn and I closed to about range 4 after ee had managed to successfully turn away from the drones. They were closing fast and he couldn't afford to hang around much longer. Since this would be the last time he would be in my FA arc, I decided to let it rip with everything I could muster power for. The rolls were again bad (many 5's and 6's) and he was able to launch plasma. Now I had something to think about. Plasma would be fast approaching from my right side and the Fed NCL from my left.
I had to dole out my energy carefully to keep ahead of the plasma, but also had to draw closer to the NCL. With just a couple of impulses to go, he fired fully overloaded photons and 4 Ph-1s into my #6. Both photons hit and he ended up scoring somewhere around 30 internals (which took out mainly inconsequential systems, some power, and minor weapons).
At that point, both the Gorn player and Fed player said they would disengage because they figured the Klingon ship would be able to keep up its turn by turn fire while they would take multiple turns to reload. The Fed was shaken by the fact that he had lost so many weapons in one volley and figured it could happen again quickly. The Gorn bemoaned the fact that he had few phasers that could bear in any one direction at the same time and that he had to wait 3 turns to arm his plasma topedoes. He, too, thought that if he was the continual target that he could lose a lot in a hurry. I was willing to call it a draw, but they said they thought it would have been a marginal victory for the C7. We all had a great time and they really enjoyed the new game. One said he was going to buy Klingon Border and look into other products, too.
It was fun to fly the C7. It is such an awesome cruiser and has few drawbacks. As with any other ship, it can't do everything all at once. That was my only frustration with it. The light cruisers were more maneuverable at higher speeds and that made it much more difficult to bring the C7 around to close with them.
