David's SpaceCon - Episode Three: Team Rebel! Heck Yeah!

Game three saw me at the last table, facing Dave K, who was also "0" from "2".

He had an interesting list of three ships with every possible upgrade, and one fighter.

I won initiative, chose second, and he chose "Most Wanted." This is the mission I most want my opponent to take, since it means I can get up to ten extra dice at the biggest ship on the field, while only making my corvette (which tends to avoid getting shot much anyway) a little more vulnerable.

Start of Turn 1 - we're both ignoring the right hand side of the space, with my NEBs deployed for slow and steady shooting, and the Assasult Frigate in Conga-Line formation with Corvette for back-up.

 Dave comes rushing out at me, while my ships fire everything they can at the Star Destroyer, ignoring the Gladiators.

 Turn 3, and the Imperials arrive. This looks a lot like the previous battle, except that my Frigates are on a flank and free to maneuver, and the NEBs have done their damage and are know fulfilling their secondary purpose: fodder. Even my fighters have managed to launch a strike on the ISD, while tying down the single imperial fighter/bomber.

I could have let Paragon finish off the ISD at this point, but let that honour go to one of the condemned NEB-Bs. It makes writing the letter to their loved ones so much easier... "I am honoured to inform you that your beloved wife has died in the cause of Galactic Liberty, destroying the Imperial Harbinger of Doom..."

 The Picture from the start of turn 4 is missing - this is the start of turn 5. The ISD is gone (and because of the mission counts as an extra 120 points for victory - nice!) as are the NEB-Bs. The Gladiators are now chasing the Assault Frigates around the loop, hoping for... I'm not sure what.

At this point I don't think there's much chance of the Imperials doing much damage, let alone taking out a Frigate. But, they keep chasing, and I keep shooting them, even slowing down to get better arcs. The fighters have finished off the Bounty Hunter, and have gathered near the Frigate in order to be in range of a squadron command passed on by Leia Organa. In this way, the front Gladiator is wiped out in short order.

 And the other Gladiator keeps on coming - at the start of turn 6, it is the only Imperial vessel remaining. And Zap-Brannigan-like, it charges straight at Paragon's guns...

At the end of turn 6, this is all that remains on the battle space - and its all mine.


This was a very solid victory, 10/0, with me scoring 520 points to the Imperials 102.

As a result of this very one-sided affair, I ended up bang in the middle of the tournament crowd, with 11 players ahead on points, and 11 behind.

On this occasion, I stuck to my game plan, and it worked. I probably only have one regret, which was letting the NEB-B finish the ISD when it could have shot at a Gladiator, but that made no real difference in the end.

David's SpaceCon - Episode Two: The Empire are a bunch of cheesy gits

Battle two at SpaceCon was right in the middle of the pack - it's a tricky place to be, because you're either fighting average players who came close to a draw (like me), or you're facing quite capable players who were beaten in their first game.

That was my opponent, Luke K from Parramatta Attack Wing.

This time I won the bid, elected to go second, and Luke chose "Fleet Ambush" - ie, his force would be the one getting ambushed. As it turned out, however, I was the one getting the rude shock...

Ambush requires the odd-number deployments to start in the centre of the board, and Luke started by putting down his Star Destroyer. I responded by putting down a NEB-B just out of the Destroyer's long range, and planning on having his ISD approach me. He put down a little ship in his normal zone, and I added another NEB-B. Then he put down a Gladiator - Demolisher - right in front of my NEBs, and I panicked. Demolisher is a pain, but I should be used to it by now. Instead of ignoring it and placing my Frigates along my plans of "hit 'em on the ends" I decided to go "box of death" and deployed my Frigates to protect the NEBs. The problem with "box of death" is that it is not clear who is doing the dying. The photo above shows the start of turn 1, with me putting everything right in the path of the Star Destroyer and his friends.

I said to Luke at this point: "One way or another this battle is not going to last long." Truer words hath ne'er been spaked.

Our fighters began the game already engaged, which was a new experience for me. All of my ships spammed "Concentrate Fire" and I did my best to smash that Gladiator to bits on turn 1. Sadly, it endured all of my fire and arrived to shoot up the Paragon with a few hits remaining.

Start of turn 2: My lovely long range Frigates are in a bar-room brawl with a Gladiator and a Star Destroyer. Whoops!
In turn 2 the Paragon was destroyed by Demolisher, before I finally destroyed it with a few well aimed shots from the Corvette.
The other ships remained to do battle with the ISD, as the Imperial Raiders came roaring in.

This is the start of turn 3. My Frigate is copping a pounding from the ISD, and being rammed by the raiders. Tycho Celchu has decided to run away, and the Corvette is gearing up to run as far as possible.

It doesn't look much better at close range...

 Start of turn 4, and the full horror of the situation is revealed. One of the Raiders is gone, but so is a NEB and the last assault frigate. Leia and Garm are running way in the Corvette, while the last NEB is left to buy them some time in a futile confrontation with destiny.

 Start of turn 5, and the Corvette is running, taking occasional pot-shots at distant targets.

The start of turn six is a re-enactment of the first scene of that fairly popular movie franchise - Corvette running a full speed from ISD - fortunately there are no tractor beams here...


The outcome was 8/2 in Luke's favour. I lost everything but the Corvette, Admiral Garm, and Leia.
Luke lost Demolosher and a raider.

Deployment was the killer here. I thought (wrongly) that I could smash the Gladiator in turn 1, then concentrate on the ISD before the raiders arrived.

The Empire aren't really that cheesy - Luke had some things that let him reroll black dice and that kind of thing. I just let myself get suckered into playing his game, rather than playing my game

David's SpaceCon - Episode One - a Close Run Thing...

SpaceCon 2016 was held over the Australia Day Weekend at "Three D6" a great games shop on the south side of Canberra.

I took a fairly plain fleet, with all wave one ships and upgrades. Two AF2Bs with ECM, one with Paragon, the other with enhanced armaments and gunnery teams; two Neb-Bs with no upgrades; and a corvette CR90A as the flagship with Garm El Iblis, and Leia Organa to help with command and control. I fielded 3 fighters only, with Tycho Celchu, a generic X-Wing, and an A-Wing.

Before going away, I set myself some 'rules of thumb' to help me make good choices. 

Rule 1: 

"Don't sacrifice strategic objectives for tactical advantage."

This comes from my earlier games where I often ram things or move foolishly to gain a temporary advantage that ends up losing me the game.

Rule 2:

"Hit 'em on the ends."

Nathan Bedford Forrest's famous restating of simple  military maxim is meant to be my gaming approach - stack a flank, charge in, blast things to bits - and then run away.

Rule 3: 

"Always go second (if you can)."

I like the advantages of going second - you get an advantage in setting the terrain, the opponent has to react to one of your three chosen scenarios, and the opponent has to deploy the first ship. Yes, they get a tactical advantage going first, but remember rule 1.

Rule 4:

"Deploy with the plan in mind."

I think deployment is very important in most wargames - deploy well, and you've got a fighting chance. Deploy poorly, and you're mostly fighting against your own first decisions.

I played three games with quite mixed results.

The first was against Jaren from Canberra. He had a three ship rebel list with two AF2s (Guppies) and a torpedo frigate (Shrimp). He also had six fighters, with three X-Wings, 2 B-Wings, and Jan Ors. His Admiral was Akhbar. He had an initiative bid of 8 to my 6. He had the choice of first or second, and chose second. 

I chose the 'bad thing that happens to me' and picked "Superior Positions." 

This picture shows positions a few moves into turn 1 - there was no opening picture. My ships are those in the foreground, Jaren's on the other side.

I deployed for a clockwise turn, and Jaren deployed for the same. Superior positions means I had to put down all my ships before Jaren put down any of his.

This photo shows the start of turn 2. My Neb-Bs have made a 90 degree turn thanks to speed 3 and a NAV command. My whole fleet is moving at speed 3.
Jaren's flagship is the Guppy at top left of the photo - that's where I'm headed with everything I can - kill Akhbar, and the rest of the fleet loses a lot of potency.

This is part way through turn 3. The fighter battle has been joined in the middle of the board. The B-Wings jumped on my AF2B, and then my fighters jumped back. Jan Ors has also jumped in, allowing the B-Wings to escape to harry more ships.

You can see my forces heading straight for Akhbar, while Jaren's fleet rounds on my right-most Neb-B.

Start of turn 4. One of my Neb-Bs has been destroyed, the other is quite damaged. My AF2b in front (centre top) has lost lots of shields, and is vulnerable. But Akhbar's flagship is also heavily damaged, has lost most shields, and has very few defence tokens left. So far, things are going okay for me - and here's where I make a silly choice.

My AF2B with the white nose is Paragon - she has two arcs on Akhbar, and a concentrate fire order. And I get to choose which ship to activate - so naturally, I activate the Neb-B, thinking to let it shoot before it ceases to exist under the withering fire of Jaren's other ships. Paragon has a good chance of destroying Akhbar, but instead I go for the Neb-B, choosing a slight tactical advantage (I get to shoot before dying) over a strategic objective (destroying Akhbar).

The Neb-B fires, doesn't do enough damage, and Akhbar activates, destroying the Neb-B and again damaging my other AF2B, before running away. Paragon no longer has two arcs, and may even be out of range altogether. SIGH.

Start of turn 5, and the only ship in range of Akhbar (now the Guppy at the centre bottom of this photo) is my flagship - the lowly corvette A. I get the first activation, and fire with two red dice (thanks to Concentrated Fire order). I need two hits, and roll a blank - and a double hit! Akhbar has no shields, and no defence tokens left. Akhbar goes up in space-smoke, and the Corvette runs as fast as possible to get out of the side arc of the other AF2.

The rest of the game is some long range sniping, as the Shrimp frigate chases my AF2Bs across space, while Leia Organa and Garm Bel Imblis shake their heads and grin at some very lucky firing.

Start of turn 6. The Corvette runs away, the fighters dance around each other, and Jaren launches some attacks from his X-Wings and Jan Ors into the rear arc of the AF2Bs. For each successful hit on a rear arc, he gets 15 points thanks to the objective card.

The game ends without much more activity, although the shrimp frigate does take a number of hits and comes close to being destroyed, except for a fancy title that allows him to evade dice at close range by sacrificing defence tokens.

The margin of victory is 65 points - my two Neb-Bs and Tycho Celchu cost about the same as Akbar's ship, but Jaren has 9 victory tokens to my 2.

65 points means a 6/4 points split, putting me in the middle of the pack for the next draw. Jaren goes on to battle Ken, the ultimate victor on the day.



Of my four rules, I couldn't keep number 3 - Jaren chose to go second, forcing me to go first. I kept to my plan, deployed to match the plan, and apart from using the Neb-B before the Paragon, I kept the strategy. There is a small chance that I could have killed Akhbar and kept the Nebulon alive, but that was always going to be a long-shot. Neb-Bs exist to shoot, and then die.

A fun game, and a good way to warm up for the rest of the day... except that things went pear-shaped very quickly in the next episode...