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...