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Red Star vs Night Brood: Rescue the Gyáa'aang

#1
1001 pt./side pending playtest game (move to Night Brood 2.0 if it would be better there).
Force lists below if you'd like to give it a go.

Situation:
Red Star Central Command received a distress signal from the Gyáa'aang- a Discovery Class science vessel surveying potential terraforming prospects of Albanghu IV near the Old Imperial Rim. A mixed force with elements from the 777th Rescue Squadron -"Broken Bow" & 437th Operations Support Squadron -"Firekeepers" (including an FTL tender) have been sent to investigate. They arrive at the beacon ten days later- orbiting the planet amongst remnants of a recent battle. The Gyáa'aang is spotted, but before an investigation into the incident begins, incoming hatchling ship signatures light up tactical screens of several Red Star vessels. Standing Peppy, Captain of the Betafortress "All In", barks commands to the Dart II's to "do a barrel roll" and get in fighting formation...   
[Image: StJ6M8g.png]
[added pilot values & fixed a typo:]
[Image: khITS7y.png]
More to come... (5/1 Edit: game postponed 'till 5/2)
Optional Rules:
  • Easing Target Speed Restrictions
  • Firing Multiple Weapon Systems
  • Gunnery Duels (if you can remember!)
  • Ottawa Redshirt Crew Allocation (ORCA)
  • Destroyed Starcraft Debris
  • Drift (at end of turn)
  • Sideslips
  • Sequential Resolution of Torp Attacks
Blind setup- Grubs set up first, that part of the board was hidden, Red Star set up second. Both forces lined up mid-board.

Turn 1:
[Image: GkH92bj.png]
Torpedo/Missile Launch Phase: Red Star launches a small salvo at the incoming grubs
Initiative Phase: Hatchlings-18     Red Star-19   
Movement: Hatchlings creep forward and deploy defensive ink- keeping the option open to shoot at torps and waiting to see the effects of the drift phase. Red Star forges ahead in V-formation.
[Image: gClSB8d.png]
Cannon Fire Phase: Most weapons were still out of range or failed to hit. The hatchlings, faced with shooting at torps with painfully limited ammo or try and use jump pod evasion next turn opted for the latter. The Betafortress "All In" was the first to score a meaningful hit at the Dragonfly- the quad blatgun bonus & the ink penalty being a wash.
Betafortress Quad Blatguns @Dragonfly {Rng Long -1} Roll: 6-6-2 {+3 -1} -3  {Ink}= [13] Hit! High +6 = 18 damage.

A Dart connected with a Thistle for 4 points, the Alpha Muskie popped a Mk.50 with an X-Beam Y-Beam.
Missile Results Phase: N/A

Drift Phase: "It'll be FUN! they said... " [Image: MmUtelc.gif]
Then 4 of the hatchling gammas proceeded to roll max or near max drift... (8 hexes)

...the lead Bright Thorn drifted into the pair of MK.10 torps that were tracking it *OOF!* So much for jumping over them. Sad  The Red Star player is now a huge drift fan- go figure. Drifting out of our precious ink was slightly startling, but we recovered as soon as we realized Terrans drift out of active Drone threat zones as a result of moving it back in the turn (flipping the drones active should probably be moved until after drift now, as a result, to keep everything honest).
End of Turn


Turn 2: a.k.a. "The Furrball", a.k.a. "The turn that would not die..."

Torpedo/Missile Launch Phase: Red Star fails several lock-on attempts with the veteran gunners while rookie gunners make theirs with slim odds. With a 'wait & see' attitude, no torpedoes launched this turn.
Initiative Phase: Hatchlings-11     Red Star-12   
Movement: Hatchlings make short jumps to evade torps, but all but a lone Mk.-10 maintains their tracking, even a Mk.50 probing through a cloud of ink was able to burn through to keep tracking its prey. Both Skree maneuvered for rear arc Drive Leech shots, but one of them was unable to swing its bio-hull around in what should have been a low-risk snap turn. Red Star Sentries held off the thrusters to flank the Betafortress in covering fire. The muskellunge was content to stay in ink for this turn and try to reach out and touch the Betafortress at range while the Revenge advanced forward in preparation for a Mk.50 rave.[Image: DC7Bw22.gif]
 End of turn 2 movement positions:[Image: YX9w4br.png]
Cannon Fire Phase
[Image: el3kOjf.jpg]
[Image: dAptHA2.gif]
Very time intensive phase this one with all the activity, by the end one thing was clear: the inept hatchling alpha *cough* me *cough* had made a grave miscalculation in wading in too close. A Skree was mortally wounded, the other Skree & the Dragonfly near total losses and a destroyed Thistle were traded for a wrecked Salamander II, a drive 5 but mostly intact Epping Prime, and a dead Revenge gunner.
Missile Results Phase: The results were included in the above description, but both Skree took large 16-22 point hits in this phase. There was only a single 6 rolled in most salvos except one, the 10-spread that had a pair of 6's for 22 damage on Skree B.
Drift Phase: It broke up the furball, several ships were so trashed that their drive was below the 6 minimum needed to drift any. A Sentry drifted through debris for 8 damage but its armor plating absorbed half of that.
End of game- Victory: Red Star! The crew of the Gyáa'aang, once rescued, told of a 2-day standoff with the grubs and intervening security patrols before hostilities broke out, their being stranded due to the thrust having been taken out by drive leeches, and the first small force of grubs limping away only to return stronger and fresh now, a week later.

Final musings: A large game for 2 people to run, we were both a bit frazzled and ready for it to end when it did. While fun enough, we both agreed that a scalpel needs to be taken to the rules to speed up play and bring it in line with modern conventions. If that is criticized as "dumbing it down", so be it~ there kind of needs to be streamlined rules for quicker play for 1v1 matches at this points level and number of ships in our opinion (this being the base Night Brood build level). What that might look like is hard to say at this point, but it wouldn't hurt to tinker with. The furball didn't help, but the cannon fire phase was a slog. It's a feeling that has been simmering for a while, and it has been experienced recently in another (board)game as well during normal expected play where the amount of miniature bookkeeping bloat takes you out of the fun. The game would end up being a different beast though, but if that's what has to be done to get through a narrative game smoother that's not a simple Astrosmash, some home-brewed version might have to be the way we go. As it is now it's high reward, but also with a high effort requirement. That's not a terrible place to be as a game though, so at least there's that. The gameplay is showing it's age though and a version that plays faster at this model/points count to stand alongside the original would be welcomed.

The Night Brood specific commentary will be split-out over in the section devoted to it here: Nightbrood 2.0 Section.
"Make the spaceships rounder but more square!"

I can't change this sig. until I paint a longboat & post pics.
Mission Accomplished: 1/3/23

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#2
(04-28-2019, 12:15 PM)Karpav1 Wrote:
  • Drift (at end of turn)


What did you think.  Even an Epping Prime can be a threat?
  Reply

#3
(05-04-2019, 11:25 PM)Smurf Wrote:
(04-28-2019, 12:15 PM)Karpav1 Wrote:
  • Drift (at end of turn)

What did you think.  Even an Epping Prime can be a threat?

 I liked it, and moving it later in the turn makes sense for reasons previously discussed. The reaction.GIF was more entertainment hyperbole than my serious thoughts, although I did say "drift SUCKS" in jest with a grin as we were laughing at the results. Here's the screengrab after the drift (I couldn't include it because I was at the image cap for the post):
[Image: PxxyQ12.png]
That was the pivotal pre-furball turn where the circled Gammas must have been singing:
"Muskie Superior jumped the gun... Muskie Superior jumped the gu-uun...(repeat x2)   Hapyness is a warm X-Beam (buzz-buzz shoot-shoot)"  ...as they boom & zoomed to their doom I presume*.

From leftmost Bright Thorn to right that's 7, 8, 5, & 6 drift scores, so my first foray into le drift was a doozy. I think I was making the mistake of the average roll of a d8 being 4... but a single dice throw is an equal probability, so a little drift-shock at my higher than average results took place. I think by that image only a single Remora in the middle managed to drift less than 5 -yikes!
Exclamation

The Epping actually blew most of its lock-on attempts with gunner 7 & 8's the next turn, but it would have been problematic in any event as long as it could manage to keep in a nicely centralized support position. Only three Brood hull types plus the Monarch can touch it outside of its threat radius and they have to use jump pods if they want to keep it that way, so from the perspective of all the rest of the xenomorph ships -it's always a threat save for an Eel on a Pod-Drone-Strafe-Run humming 'Can't Touch This'. Love-Love-Love the Epping. As one of the original ships, I've always had a soft spot for it, in good times & bad. I make up both rosters in the games I post, so when I saw it on the Red Star force list I had to throw it in even though I knew it would be an effective bug-zapper. Oh well, the Night Brood will have to cope! (and cope they did -if coping means a hemorrhaging hull). 

I need drone catapults so I don't have to go near that thing... Tongue


* for catching The White Album shout-out: +200 old school,  for Soundtrack To My Life: +200 contemporary, for both: +500 well-rounded internets. For making any sense out of it at all: +10,000 warped.
"Make the spaceships rounder but more square!"

I can't change this sig. until I paint a longboat & post pics.
Mission Accomplished: 1/3/23

  Reply



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