Re: [FT] The Teske field has landed (long)

G'day all,

I'd just like to record an official sighting of the Teske 
field on dates 5/2/99 and 7/2/99 in Hobart Australia.

First in flesh FT battle I've played in too long a while 
and what happens? I'm possessed by Teske 
- not a 1 in sight... But I digress, first a little background.

Decided to convert a few more GWs to GZG last Friday 
night. So we opened our home to all comers and ended 
up with a house full! Talk about feel like old mother hen! 
Anyway we decided on about 1000 pts each, which then 
made up 2 big fleets for a slog match. OK not very 
pretty, not very classy, but it got their attention.

Line up (from memory so I've probably forgotten something 
and as informal as hell as my naval training extends to 
big/little/piddling/humungus):

The good guys (what can I say my son named us)
Derek - NSL SDN + 3 NSL little guys (Escort cruiser and 
light cruisers I think) 
Me - FSE Fleet Carrier with 7 groups of std fighters (not 
my usual mix, but I had to stay as close to 1000 pts as 
possible) 
Brian (initiate) - NSL Battleship + 3 NSL little guys (Escort 
cruiser and Light cruisers or something) 
Mark (initiate) - FSE Battleship + BC + Corvette + Escort 
Cruiser (I know these for sure as they're my figs)

The bad guys
Daniel - NAC SDN (I think - it was huge anyway) + another 
couple of big NAC ships 
Nathan - 3 ESU Escort Cruisers + some other ESU little 
ship 
Andrew (initiate) - ESU SDN (I think) + couple small ESU 
ships 
Steve - ESU SDN + ESU anti-Kra'vak ship (big ship he 
designed to kill a mate's Kra'vak - lots p-torps etc.)

Turn 0: With coffee and biscuits duly ingested (nothing 

like trying to poison the oppposition with caffeine and 
home cooking first) we set-up. Top left corner sees 
NSL and FSE in one very big group pointing towards 
the table centre. Meanwhile the dastardly Bad Guys 
go for the "lets string ourselves out in a big long line" 
maneuver and proceed to cover the entire right edge 
of the table. 

Turn 1: Both sides show their complete faith in telepathy 
by not consulting and each commander heads off in 
their own direction - the chaos begins! Mark's FSE 
turns right to face NAC while the rest of the Good Guys 
more or less turn left. The master-stroke being that the 
FSE carrier places itself with consummate skill at the 
blind-spot of the fire zones of the two main groups, so 
everyone's attention is elsewhere... 
(What you expected an objective report?)

Turn 3: Mark's FSE realises that their admiral meant their 
"other right" and finally decide to join the rest of us. The 
NSL form-up better than any rugby/grid-iron pack I've 
ever seen and face off with the central ESU - it looks like 
its 12:00 at the OK-coral (I have absolutely no idea how 
to spell that, but you get the idea). Meanwhile long lost 
comrade Steve putters up the board, Daniel turns down 
the flank and I find myself happily sitting dead in the 
middle of EVERYONE's fire arc! Nice going navigator! 
Then fire begins. Much to my astonishment/delight the 
entire ESU universe decides that they want the NSL 
eagle off the SDN as a hood ornament, while the NAC 
make the exceutive decision that the Admiral in charge 
is on the FSE battleship and so try to pound it into its 
constituent quarks. Thus everyone fires AROUND
the FSE carrier. More "plinks" than hits are heard and it 
seems like this could be a VERY long night. Meanwhile 
FSE Admiral in charge of the carrier is wondering who 
she should thank for the cloaking device which must 
have been installed at that last starbase...

Turn 4: FSE corvette charges NAC while the rest of 
Mark's forces try to line up with the NSL. NSL plod 
forward, ESU plod forward. Meanwhile the 7 FSE 
fighter groups and an SM decide they'd like a change 
of scenery... mmmm that ESU SDN looks pretty... 
The suddenly, "is it me or is the light in the room 
dimming, the world is spinning, there's this pain 
in my hand..." then equally suddenly everything 
clears, but I feel strangely different... 
PDS fire is completed with only 2 fighters down. 
Andrew begins to look distraught, but Steve assures 
him that I own the rights on the number 1 and that 
Andrew will have Grandchildren before I ever hit him. 
Then I roll... To my shock each group rolls AT LEAST 
4 6s and 3 sets of re-rolls!!! Its a heady feeling, 
and I thank the universe for this fleeting honour... 
but it ain't fleeting... But first, the NAC fire on the 
NSL SDN and cause a few nicks. Then Derek fires 
- he doesn't believe in any magic associated with 
plastic cubes with dots on, but then he always rolls 
6s and so thinks its a normal occurance (and nothing 
changed here). Then its the ESU fire and once again 
they decide to concentrate their fire elsewhere and 
some smaller ships look a bit sick. Then the FSE 

carrier fires - all 6s! The Bad Guys suggest I change 
dice and even Derek is looking a little unsettled. 
Steve is out of range and so its Brain's fire..
the Teske field has an area effect! Brian does 45 points 
of damage. By the end of the turn the ESU SDN is a hulk 
and both the central Escort Cruisers strike their colours 
(I would too when you've lost most of your internal systems) 
- good riddance pesky Area Defense Fire-controls!!

Turn 5: My fighters leave for greener pastures again - this 
time the Escort Cruiser accompanying the other 
ESU SDN. Meanwhile the NAC end their move on top 
of 5 SMs, the NSL sort of fly round in circles while the 
central ESU pilots go shooting past before realising 
that the brake is the other peddle. The FSE carrier gracefully 
glides doen the centre of the table, a trully beautiful sight 
to behold, like Athene sprung full grown from Zeus's 
forehead... (Ahem, excuse me got carried away there). 
When the plasma clears half the ships have missiles 
on them and another ESU is being circled by the 
"Indians" (OK the word vulture was used at the time, 
but if the Bad Guys want even press let them write it!). 
PDS fire is going mad left, right and centre, but its not 
until the missles and fighters hit that we see real carnage! 
Teske you beautiful human being my fighters saw that 
Escort Cruiser turn into an expanding debris cloud! The 
field effect also continued and the Bad Guys opened 
a new box of dice. By the end of the turn. The Bad Guys 
were staggering (then again maybe that was my cooking 
finally taking effect) and our side had some scratches, 
but was yet to lose a ship.

Turn 6: What remains of the central ESU narrowly avoids 
flying off the edge and now sits forlornly at the spot 
where the Good Guys had begun - they decide that
watching rather than dying might be the way to go. 
The NSL all head for Steve's ships; Steve attempts 
to slow at precisely the wrong time - he spins 180 deg 
and does a main burn - thus can't fire out the rear arc just 
when he's heel to toe with Brain's NSL (now in his rear arc!). 
Daniel's remaining NAC once again end on top of 
multiple missiles and his 2 fighter groups decide to go 
out in a blaze of glory. And to add insult to injury 
Derek's loan fighter group (launched the turn before) 
also manages to find itself being mothered by an NAC ship 
(Daniel summarily executes all navigators on the spot). 
The FSE fighters and NSL missiles swarm the ESU 
"anti-Kra'vak" ship and lastly the Fultons manage to cause 
many comments about knowing each other too well, 
by ending their moves with the FSE carrier and NSL 
SDN side by side pointing directly at Steve's ESU SDN 
(and all without uttering a single word). The missile 
fire proves deadly at both ends of the board - the NAC 
is all but dead with 7 hull boxes to go and my fighters 
watch open-mouthed as their target disappears in front 
of their eyes (bl**dy NSL missiles stealing what was 
rightfully an FSE kill, but not to worry there's always 
that SDN for me to let lose on..). The NSL fighters take 
the NAC down to 3 hull boxes, but with a manical 

laugh Daniel uses his last breaths to pop the FSE 
Escort Cruiser (our first and only loss). Brian continues 
to display the area effect and Derek takes up where 
he leaves off to see yet another ESU SDN leave the field. 
(Stole my kill again!!) Finally everyone at the low end 
of the table was out of arc (or targets - b*st*rds!!!) so 
it was Mark's fire. Now remember that little Corevette 
that charged the NAC (so it could fire its Submunitions 
pack before dying) all those turns ago? Well it had taken 
heavy damage in that gutsy charge, but had managed to 
get its Fire Control and Beams back on line. So in a 
last hurrah for the Teske Field Mark rolled 7 6s in a row 
(Daniel took the NAC SDN off after the first 2, but Mark 
just wanted to see how long it lasted). A cry of "Stencil!!" 
was heard on the Corvette's bridge.

So we had a good battle, I found out what a 6 is and we 
conveted another 3 to Full Thrust. In fact Brain and Mark 
swore off Warhammer on the spot as they can never roll 
a single 6 there, so Full Thrust must be their game (all 
thanks' to Aaron misplacing that field of his).

As a side note the field was still around on Sunday 
when it visted my son at his first "real" visit to the 
wargames club. It was his 5th birthday and he 
was allowed to join the club. His first game there was 
of Full Thrust and he chose one of his Star-blazers 
SSDs we'd done up (with wave-gun etc.). He 
didn't roll under a 5 all day! I don't know who was more 
chuffed - Lochy or his Dad! 
So there you go Master Teske, you're field has landed ;)

Cheers

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART 
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax (03) 6232 5199 International +61 3 6232 5199

email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au