[FT] After action report - merchant raiding

Greetings, all!

Lonnie & I played a *very* enjoyable game tonight - on this week's
agenda
was a little merchant raiding.	My small K'rathri squadron's objective
was
to capture supplies from an "undefended" star system - Lonnie played a
detached destroyer fleet that just happened to be in the system for a
little R&R.  We threw a few variables into the setup just to make things
more interesting.

Rules: Fleet Book using cinematic movement.
       Boarding rules from MT used for ship capture.
Points per side: 650 max

Merchant 'targets':  2 ships - One UM Heavy Freighter mass 120 (FB page
42)
and one UMH "Super-Heavy" freighter mass 160 with the same basic stats
(thrust 2, PDS, 16 hull boxes & 111 mass cargo).

K'rathri raiders:  Roll randomly between two forces: 
		   [1-3] CQ/DQ/DD/FF/FL
		   [4-6] CQ/DQ/(3x)FF
Rolled 5, I got the second fleet.

NAC defenders: Roll randomly between three forces:
	       [1-2] (4x)DD/(2x)FF/(3x)FL
	       [3-4] (4x)DD/(2x)FH/(2x)FL
	       [5-6] CL/(3x)DD/FH/FF/FL
Rolled 2, Lonnie got the first fleet.

Setup: 4' x 6' "Starscape" mat (nice!!) centered on 4' x 8' table.

Merchants: initial speed 4, setup 18" from K'rathri end of table (on the
mat by 6")

K'rathri:  setup within 2" of table edge, initial speed determined by
2d6
roll, min 6 (rolled 9).

NAC: enters games on turn determined by 1d6 roll at "planetary orbit"
(rolled 2), initial thrust at 8 when entering.

We set up a 4" x 8" "orbit box" on the NAC edge of the Starscape mat -
the
remaining table was out of play.  The K'rathri's objective is to capture
one or more of the merchant ships and escape off his end of the mat with
them.  The NAC's objective is to get the merchant ships into orbit by
hitting the orbit box at the proper vector & speed (8).  If both
merchant
ships are destroyed, then the player with the least damaged force is a
marginal winner.  The K'rathri player gets partial victory points by
blowing *everything* up. :)

TABLE SETUP 
	     v-----mat-----v 
	   +-+------+------+-+
	   | |	    |	   | |
K'rathri   |K| M->  |	  [] |	NAC end   
end	   | |	    |	   | |
	   +-+------+------+-+
	   ^------table------^

ORBIT BOX
		  |<--- mat edge
	   +aaaaaa+
	   |\	  |
	   |  \   |
	   |	  |<--- center of mat, short edge
	   |  /   |
	   |/	  |
	   +aaaaaa+
		  |

To achieve orbit, the merchants had to enter either 'a' edge at a speed
of
8 and a vector of 45 degrees or less to the edge of the mat.The NAC
player's ships entered the game from the mat edge (speed 8) next to the
orbit box - roll randomly for each ship to see which side of the orbit
box
it enters at.

It took me three turns to catch and board the merchantmen, who were
trying
to split up to avoid capture.  The CQ and DQ paired up against the UMH
while the three FF's went after the UM.  The CQ's needle beams took care
of
the UMH's PDS, but the Class 2 beam gunners got excessively enthusiastic
and walloped the freighter, thresholding the drives down to 1 - which
would
go unrepaired for the remainder of the game.  On turn 2, the UM fired
his
PDS at one of the frigates.  Because the targeted frigate had just shot
that turn and a second frigate was within "spitting distance" of the
first,
I rolled a morale check to see how trigger-happy the second frigate's
beam
gunners were (these are K'rathri, after all :).  Failed morale check =
alpha strike with all beams (2x Class 2, 2x Class 1, 1 PDS).  "Good" die
rolls gutted the poor merchantman 2 full threshold checks, which damaged
the FTL and the thrust.

By this time, Lonnie's fleet is on board and accelerating madly.
Meanwhile, my prize crews had no success coercing the ape's crewmembers
into fixing any of the damaged systems for the rest of the encounter, so
the UM, which had split to starboard & accelerated (yeah, right! :),
attempted to turn around to starboard. The UMH prize crew veered the
ship
starboard as well (it had dodged to port) and slowed it down while
trying
to repair the drives.  The UM exited the starboard table edge on turn 6
and
was considered lost.  I managed to get the UMH - with one cargo hold
undamaged - turned around without falling off the edge.

Lonnie's forces were split about equally on entry - so we managed to
perform some fancy closing scissors between my ships and his.  Mass
confusion and chaos ensued.  I kept the CQ and the DQ as a tight pair
for
almost the entire games, while the three FF's also maneuvered basically
as
a group.  This and some timely initiative rolls allowed me to dish out
more
damage than I received - by the time the 11th turn rolled around my CQ
was
down only 1 row of damage, the DQ was one point away from his second
threshold check, and I had lost two FF's.  Meanwhile, Lonnie was down to
two ships - both of which were streaming serious "flotsam & jetsam" and
had
virtually nothing left.  We called the game at this point (store
closing)
and declared a partial victory for the K'rathri, since both NAC ships
would
have been destroyed in the next turn and I was going to be able get the
(badly damaged) UMH freighter off of the table *eventually* <g>.

Game Highlights:
* K'rathri FF getting "popped" in turn with 14 points of damage in one
turn.  BIG boom.

* Heavily damaged NAC DD crossed right in front of the K'rathri DQ,
which
proceeded to seriously overkill him with fire from 0" range Pulse
Torpedo,
2x Class 2, 2x Class 1, and 2x PDS.  Pulse Torp gunner fired first and
got
the kill.

* All NAC forces - except the DD mentioned above - managed to avoid the
front arc of both the CQ and the DQ - which left the CQ's Class 3
(1-arc)
gunner *very* frustrated for the entire game.

* Lonnie rolls even worse initiative dice than I do - I didn't think
that
was possible!  I would roll a 4, he'd roll a 3.  I roll a 6, he rolls a
5.
This was consistent for the first 9 turns, until he *finally* won
initiative for turns 10 & 11.  By this time his ships were streaming
serious wreckage and missing FiCons <eg>.

* Lonnie's last shot was at the freighter - which he managed to hit
(sort
of).  Unfortunately, he was one point short before losing all of his
FiCons
to threshold checks.

Extremely fun game (thanks, Lonnie!)  For our next encounter, we're
introducing - Asteroids! [eek!]

===============================================================
K'rathri ships:

[CQ] Gri'mekh class Patrol Cruiser (TMF:74 NPV:248)
     1:Class 3 beam, 1-arc (F)
     2:Class 2 beams, 3-arc (FP/FS)
     2:Class 1 beams, 6-arc
     2:Needle beams, 1-arc (F)
     2:PDS, 3:FiCon, Thrust 6
     Level 1 screens
     22 damage, 4 crew factors, 5 boarding parties

[DQ] Jalkekhri class Patrol Destroyer (TMF:44 NPV:148)
     1:Pulse Torpedo, 1-arc (F)
     2:Class 2 beams, 3-arc (FP/FS)
     2:Class 1 beasm, 6-arc
     2:PDS, 2:FiCon, Thrust 6
     13 damage, 3 crew factors, 3 boarding parties

[DD] Ra'athri class Destroyer (TMF:34 NPV:114) - NOT USED
     2:Class 2 beams, 3-arc (FP/FS)
     2:Class 1 beasm, 6-arc
     2:PDS, 2:FiCon, Thrust 6
     1 armor, 10 damage, 2 crew factors, 2 boarding parties

[FF] Kr'mekh class Frigate (TMF:24 NPV:81)
     2:Class 2 beams, 3-arc (FP/FS)
     2:Class 1 beasm, 6-arc
     1:PDS, 1:FiCon, Thrust 6
     7 damage, 2 crew factors, 1 boarding party

[FL] Dru'krekh class Corvette (TMF:14 NPV:48) - NOT USED
     2:Class 1 beasm, 6-arc
     1:Submunition Pack (F)
     1:PDS, 1:FiCon, Thrust 6
     4 damage, 1 crew factors, 1 boarding party

---------------------------------------------------------------
NAC Ships (see the Fleet Book for stats)

[CL] Huron class Light Cruiser (TMF:50 NPV:167) - NOT USED
[DD] Ticonderoga class Destroyer (TMF:30 NPV:100)
[FH] Tacoma class Heavy Frigate (TMF:24 NPV:81) - NOT USED
[FF] Minerva class Frigate (TMF:18 NPV:61)
[FL] Arapaho class Corvette (TMF:12 NPV:41)

===================================================================
Mark "Hauptmann" Shurtleff
  email: hauptman@sfcmd.com -or- hauptman@concentric.net
  visit the Gear Locker at http://www.sfcmd.com/HeavyGear

 Finagle's Law:
   The perversity of the Universe tends towards the maximum.
===================================================================