Re: Dust Clouds

hosford.donald wrote:
>
> Say...what situation was that anyway?  How did the fight end up in a
dust cloud?
> Sounds like an interesting "terrain" feature....:-)

It was during the "Full Thrust" competition at CANCON, the Australian
National (War)Games convention, held every year on the Australia Day
Long Weekend in January.

There were a number of games played.

Players had to provide 2 fleets: 1800 pts of standard ships (no
privateers or missile ships or System Defence Cruisers, but anything
else was OK), the other fleet was 1000 pts, with SDCs allowed.

The first was a Warm-Up: 1800 pts a side. Played lengthways

The second had an asteroid field (non moving), 1800 pts a side. Played
lengthways

The third was an attack/defence game. Attacker had their standard 1800
pts, defender had 1000 pts plus a non-moving battlestation defending a
planet. Basically, it was a System Defence Cruiser without thrust or
warp, but with double the null boxes. The 1000 pts was a seperate fleet
list, which could include System Defence Cruisers. The attacker had to
Warp in. Yours truly, aiming at the centre of the large table, managed
to have 2 of my 3 SuperDreads scatter off table (30" and 36" off). My
opponent agreed to them "coming on later" rather than being "destroyed".
He got the "Best and Fairest" award, and IMHO deserved it. Naturally the
one SuperDread that was accurate got munched by the firepower of the
Battlestation plus 3 System Defence Cruisers plus a few others. 

The fourth was the same as the third, with sides reversed.

The fifth had many, many dust clouds all over the place, 1800 pts a
side. Played Lengthways

The sixth and last had a large field of asteroids at one end, and a
large group of dust clouds at the other, 1800 pts a side. Played
widthways, and you had to write down your location before coming on the
board simultaneously.
 
It was a great success. I took 3 SuperDreads on the grounds that I had
played exactly one game of FT before, and that 2 years previously. I
figured that manoeuvre and subtlety were not going to be my strong
points, so "Keep it simple". The 1000 pt fleet was a Fleet Carrier and a
System Defence Cruiser for much the same reason.

Alas,  3 SuperDreads vs a balanced fleet under the circumstances of the
comp gave the biggies an unfair advantage. My only loss was to the guy
who won the comp - and he rolled 32 6's in 90 rolls, vs my 8. He also
out-generalled me, but that's another matter (IOW he deserved to win).
IMHO the guy who came third in the comp with a balanced fleet was better
than either of the top two, myself specifically included.

But it was FUN.  

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