Another fun battle

[ericphillips]

Yesterday, my pal Sayler and I went at it for a four hour battle. Here was the setup:

Units
Kzinti: FFK, CM and BATS
Lyrans: BB and BCH, starting 30 hexes from the BATS.

Setup: Location map, centered on BATS. A medium sized planet is two hexes away, in direction E.
Objective: Kzinti defends the BATS to fight off the Lyrans. Lyrans need to destroy the BATS and get away.

How it went down: First round I (the Kzinti) unleashed a buncha drones at the Lyrans, trying to use up their ESGs. As they got closer, in round two, I made an error (haven't played against Lyrans much) and he got his BB on the same hex as my FFK. The FFK did some damage (but had fired most of his weapons before), and the FFK went up in smoke from the ESGs. Ooops. But the BATS then did a lot of damage to the BB, and the BB began limping.

Meanwhile, the BCH made a wide turn and then used the plaent as a shield to get close to the BATS. He comes out and the BCH and BATS trade blows, both taking some damage.

Now the BCH flies past and needs to turn around. The BB is swinging back himself. For some dumb butt reason, I never start evasive maneuvers, so the BB hits me from far causing some internals.

Then the climax. The BCH comes around and does damage to the BATS, but gets ripped to hell by the PH-4s and, with his ESGs depleted, and no power to reinforce, took two drones on an open shield. The BCH limps behind the planet and my BATS cannot make a shot.

Turn four is the ender. The BCH has four energy. It takes a baseline 0. The CM turns and heads for it, coming around the other side of the planet.

The Lyran has charged ESGs, and is four hexes away from the BATS. He goes to baseline 24 and accelerates, ending up in impulse 1 in the same hex as the BATS. We trade blows. He ESGs and direct fires the BATS. I return PH-4s and DISRs. Boom goes the BATS. The BB takes a lot of damage, but survives. The BB flies away opposite direction of the Kzinti CM, which comes around and finishes off the BCH.

My problem was marine combat. I sent over a half dozen marines, only lost two, but did NO DAMAGE to the enemy.

In the future, I need to make sure we are using a disengagement rule on these pickup games. The BCH should have disengaged. Not only does this rule make combat a little shorter, but it stops dumb suicide attacks. In this case, the BB might not have been successful because my CM would have been with the BATS against the BB. Of course, my loss of the FFK was uber bad.

Overall. FUN FUN FUN.

I think we need a new damage chart with all the alternates listed on it.

[Mike]

I don't know if a disengagement rule should be imposed in a scenario like that. If the Lyrans really want that BATS destroyed, just about whatever they send on the mission to do it would be expendable as long as the station is destroyed.

That sounded a really fun engagement!

[terryoc]

A time limit is a good one. The scenario, "Attack on battlestation K3" has a ten-turn time limit.

Personally, as the Lyran player I'd have hammered the defending ships for a few turns with disruptor and phaser fire before closing on the base to rip it up.

Was that a battlestation, or a starbase? A BATS (battlestation) should have gone down pretty easily to a BB and BCH I would have thought.

[ericphillips]

A time limit is a good one.\

I forgot, we had a time limit. The BATS put out a distress call, and at the end of turn six, reinforcements would arrive that would easily destroy the two invading ships.

I usually have something like that on it, to put pressure on one side or the other to act sooner than later.

But I think my pal could have been more successful to try to engage at a distance. I tried to keep my ships in range of my BATS. Even at moderate distance, those PH-4s are trouble.

But, overall, with the BATS and the other ships, it seemed to have a good balance for a quick pickup game.

[pinecone]

If you want a disengagement rule, see "Retirement" (2E3)

[ericphillips]

Yeah, that's what I meant actually, with the wrong name. But I have never been good with names.