Firestorm Armada Battle Report! - Escape!

Welcome back to another installment. This time not only do we have an exciting battle report but also a new scenario!


The Mission.

The Dindrenzi have have crossed the border and laid siege to a Sorylian colony. As the Ground troops close in, the Colonists prepare their evacuation.

Dindrenzi Player: (Jake, aka the evil one) The Dindrenzi fleet starts the game blockading a Planet and moon. On the moon are three civilian escape ships prepping to launch. Victory or defeat lies in the capture of these ships.

Sorylian Player: (Jon aka Buckaroo) Part of the Sorylian fleet arrives in a desperate bid to aid the escaping civilian ships. Other ships are on the way, but will they be too late.


Setup:

Jake deployed his entire fleet around the planet. He had the following

1 x BB
1 x CV
3 x Cruisers
3 x Frigates
3 x Frigates




The initial Sorylian force was...

1 x BB
3 x Frigates

With the following to arrive later in the battle...

1 x CV
3 x Cruisers
3 x Frigates


(Sorylian Deployment)


Turn 1.

The Dindrenzi use a Comms card and still only barely win initiative for the turn. Sadly the Dindrenzi flagship must have been caught off guard as it fails to inflict any damage to the Sorylian Battleship. Other ships move into attack position. Dindrenzi cruisers pick up the slack scoring an impressive critical on the Sorylian battleship in return.

The Sorylian BB manages a sting of sixes and scores a critical hit on a Dindrenzi Cruiser, knocking out it's weapons systems.



Turn 2.

Things start out bad for the Dindrenzi when all three Sorylian reserve formations arrive via shunt entry. One formation, the Frigates are smack on target, the Cruisers are slightly off, however manage to land closer to their targets, the CV lands near the Sorylian Battleship on a collision course!




The Dindrenzi Battleship tears into it's Sorylian counterpart, a flurry of sixes sees 26 hits! Two Critical damage the ship killing crew and causing a raging fire! The Sorylian battleship is quickly besieged by the Dindrenzi cruisers as well, reducing the noble Sorylian flagship to a single point of hull.




Only able to move forward the Sorylian battleship dives into the heart of the Dindrenzi formation setting off mines! in the ensuing explosions destroy a crippled Cruiser and damage another. Oops, the Dindrenzi mines have backfired.




Sorylian reinforcements quickly tangle with the blockading Dindrenzi, several frigates on both sides are destroyed.




Turn 3 & 4:

Assuming the Sorylian Battleships destruction was all but ensured (foolish) the Dindrenzi flagship let rip at the Sory. Carrier, causing a critical and damaging the primary weapons.

Meanwhile drama grew over the Sorylian Flagship's situation, with a raging fire, only one point of Damage left the Dindrenzi cruisers drop mines directly in the path of the Battleship, however their direct fire fails to deliver the last point of damage. Rolling (incorrectly as it turned out) to survive the fire critical first the fire is successfully put out. Then a repair card is played, fixing 3 damage. (Now back at half strength) and sails through the mine fields, setting them off, with no damage taken.






From the brink of destruction to back in the game, baby!

Now with several gaps open two escape ship blast off, making a bid for open space. The Dindrenzi's only hope is a single surviving Frigate that attempts a boarding action on the Civilian Yacht. This was when the Dindrenzi player found out how tough the civilian ships can be. His boarding party was easily repulsed. Then the helpless Frigate was snipped from the stars by the combined broadsides of three Sorylian Cruisers.







At the end of turn 4 we called the game as a Sorylian Victory, with the escaping Civilians making it to safety.



Thoughts:

Bad luck for the Dindrenzi player when all the Sorylian re-enforcements arrived and landed more or less where they needed to. This balanced the fleets but the Dindrenzi were in a awkward position.

Another game breaker was the survival of the Sorylian Battleship. Uncanny luck saw the ship survive and get repaired enough to get back in the fight.

The Dindrenzi player also dropped the ball on mine placement, these could have been valuable is surrounding the planet and moon with mines, limiting

Notes on the scenario:

On first pass the scenario seems to be weighted to the Relief force player. Those Civilian ships are the equal of any race's frigates and boarding is harder then it seems. Additional points to compensate may be necessary.

However balance may have been compromised when the Sorylian re-enforcements all showed up on turn 2. Had the Dindrenzi dealt with the initial Sorylians before the reserves arrived it would have been a different game.

We are planning a rematch and play opposite roles.

enjoy!

Buckaroo