Full Thrust: Encounter at Felixis V

Introduction

The Klingon 14th Battle Squadron has been dispatched to the Kzinti border, where there are rumours that a hostile task force is trying to break through the frontier.  Both fleets have spread out their ships so they can search wider volumes of space.  Near the 5th planet in the uninhabited Felixis system, contact is made between the lead elements of the hostile squadrons.  Reinforcements are summoned immediately, but they'll take some time to arrive.  Which side will build up their forces quickly enough to overwhelm their enemies?

The Scenario

For this game, I decided to take the "escalating engagement" scenario from Battlefleet Gothic and adapt it for Full Thrust.  So, here's how it goes:

• Each side chooses ships to a set number of points value.  Their fleet is then split into 4 separate groups.  Each group must have at least 1 ship in it, but the groups do not have to be of equal value (note that there is a risk in having highly asymmetric groups).
• For deployment purposes only, the board is split into 1/3rds lengthwise.  The central 1/3 is neutral.  Each player places 4 "contact markers" in their own 1/3 of the board.
• To start the game and at the beginning of each of turns 2 and 3, one group from each fleet arrives.  Note that only 3 of the 4 groups in the fleet will arrive by this means.  The 4th group is lost, delayed, recalled, breaks down or otherwise fails to appear.  I told you that there was a risk to making your groups widely different in capabilities!
• The side which has lost the initiative resolves their arriving group first, followed by the initiative side.
• To resolve an arrival, choose a group and a contact marker, neither of which have been tested before in this round and roll a dice.  On a score of 5 or 6, the group arrives at that point, following all the usual rules for FTL exit in the proximity of other objects.  On any other roll, the player must try a different group and contact marker pairing, until either he/she is successful or all groups/contact markers have been tested.  If the latter occurs then start again [ultimately, a 5 or 6 will be rolled and a group will be brought into the game].
• Contact markers may be moved up to 12" after orders are written but before ships are moved, so long as they stay in their 1/3 of the table.  This is to prevent an unscrupulous opponent from parking frigates on all available entry points and causing your battleship to have a potentially catastrophic warp accident on arrival!

The Game

We played this scenario using my Klingon and Kzinti fleets, to a value of 1000 NPV.

Klingon 14th battle Squadron

1. Relentless (Battlecruiser, 358 NPV)
2. Ragnarok (Heavy Cruiser, 285 NPV)
3. Valhalla (Heavy Cruiser, 285 NPV)
4. Victory (Frigate, 74 NPV)

Kzinti "Far Reach" Carrier Group

1. Shadowcat (Carrier/Battlecruiser, 580 NPV)
2. Claw (Light Cruiser, 181 NPV)
3. Leopard and Panther (Destroyers, 2 x 81 NPV)
4. Tiger (Destroyer, 81 NPV)

As can be seen from the above, 3 of the 4 Klingon groups were somewhat above the average points value for a group (250 NPV), whereas the Kzinti had 3 weak groups and 1 very powerful one.

Initial Moves

I (as Klingon commander) chose to test for the Relentless first and was immediately successful - the battlecruiser was placed on the table first.  Then the Kzinti player (my son) diced for each of his groups in turn, finally getting a success for his last choice - the destroyer Tiger.  This looked like a very uneven match-up, but perhaps the Tiger could play hide-and-seek around the gas giant until help arrived?  At least the 2 ships were initially out of range...

As the Relentless accelerated towards the small Kzinti ship, reinforcements started to arrive.  For the Klingons, the cruiser Valhalla warped in, while the Kzinti gained another 2 destroyers.

Despite the best efforts of the smaller ships to scatter, the 2 large Klingon vessels tore them apart.  Only the Leopard survived the initial volley, though this was something of a mixed blessing as she took a bridge critical hit and was heading straight for the planet of Felixis V!

Look Out!

Just before we determined the 3rd and final groups of reinforcements to arrive, the Kzinti played a Mines event card.  He rolled a '4' for the number of such weapons left over from a previous war and gleefully deployed them around my 2 remaining possible entry points.

The Klingon cruiser Ragnarok duly arrived.  Fortunately for me, she scattered 4" away (backwards!) from her FTL exit point (mines have an activation range of 3" in Full Thrust).  Unfortunately, she was now heading straight at the mines.  The captain immediately ordered a full deceleration and spent the next few turns pivoting on the spot until she could move away slowly from the threat.  Ragnarok played no useful part in the remainder of the game.

Predictably, on the Kzinti side their last reinforcement was the light cruiser Claw.  Despite being heavily outnumbered (1 CL vs 1 BC and 2 CA), she attacked the Klingon battlecruiser, launching missile salvos as fast as she could!  The Klingon captain was somewhat taken aback by this and ordered that all weapons which were capable should fire on the missiles.  Consequently, return fire at the bold Kzinti ship was light and she took little damage.  Indeed, on this turn one of the missiles breached the defences and the Relentless actually received more hits than she gave out!

As the Kzinti destroyer Leopard finally ploughed into the planet, the Claw and the Relentless circled each other.  The smaller Kzinti ship was firing missiles for all she was worth and would soon empty her magazines - but what else could she do?  If she let the Klingon battlecruiser get a clean shot at her then the light cruiser wouldn't stand a chance at this range!

Even as she launched her final volley of missiles (all of which missed or were shot down), the Claw received massive damage from the enemy flagship.  The Klingons, impressed by the way she had fought, held their fire while the Kzinti crew abandoned ship.  However, before the Klingons could board the crippled Claw and claim her as a prize, her damaged warp core blew up!

Conclusion

Sometimes, life just isn't fair!  For the Kzintis, their weakest ship arrived first and their strongest one didn't arrive at all.  For the Klingons, it was exactly the other way round.

What could the Kzinti have done differently?  Perhaps a more balanced fleet composition would have helped, though it's worth pointing out that if the gamble had paid off and the Shadowcat had arrived first then the outcome might have been quite different.  Alternatively, each Kzinti ship that arrived and saw that it was hopelessly outclassed should have attempted to go straight back to warp.  This might not have been successful in all cases, but at least some of their ships might have escaped!

"Not-Star Trek" Kzinti Fleet (Irregular miniatures)

Introduction

My previous articles on my "not-Star Trek" Federation, Orion and Klingon fleets have been very popular, so I plan to keep documenting further parts of my collection.  Eventually I'll run out of models, of course, but that won't be for a little while yet.

I played a lot of Star Fleet Battles a long time ago and remember it with a lot of fondness, tempered with frustration at the overwhelming complexity of the later versions and supplements.  I also didn't like the "official" min-max tactics that were encouraged by articles in Nexus magazine and elsewhere.  Still, my memories are positive enough for me to base my "not Trek" model fleets loosely on SFB rather than the images and factions from the later series of the TV show.

This time, it's the turn of the Kzinti, the fierce, clannish and honourable cat-people with a penchant for missiles and starfighters.  Their ships are somewhat unusual in the Star Fleet universe because they are heavily dependent on expendable ordnance.  The key to victory against Kzinti is to survive the initial storm of firepower; once they're out of missiles then your chances are greatly improved!

Design Philosophy

As before, I've looked for an existing Full Thrust fleet on which to base my Kzintis, rather than designing all of them from scratch.  In this case, the FSE seemed to fit the bill, with their preference for missile salvoes and hybrid battleship-carriers.  That's close enough for a starting point, though I'm quite happy to swap out a few systems here and there to make a ship more "Kzinti-like", if needed.

The Ships

My Kzinti fleet is built entirely out of models from Irregular Miniatures "Confederation" fleet.  Now, these miniatures are not too close in appearance to the canon Kzinti ships, but they're good enough for me.  The Irregular "Confederation" fleet is fairly generic in appearance; it could also be used to represent SFB Hydrans if desired.

Irregular Designation	Picture	Full Thrust SSD
Not sure.  Probably: DYC2: Destroyer, Hussar Class
DYC3 - Light Cruiser, Ryder Class
DYC4 - Heavy Cruiser, Harrasser [sic] Class
DYC5 - Battlecruiser/ Dreadnought, Percheron Class
DYC6 - Heavy Carrier, Camelot Class.  Note that I've discarded the original angled flight deck from this model and have added landing pads of my own!

Full Thrust: Running the Imperial blockade

Introduction

Tonight at the Games Club, my son and I needed to leave a few minutes ahead of the official end time.  This was because the Dog Training club he attends was to hold its AGM and they would start rather earlier than normal.  Tuesday evenings are our busy time!  That being so, I had to be able to pack up my game quickly when we had finished.  There's only 1 candidate for this from my regular stable of rules: Full Thrust!

So, a spaceship game, eh?  Now I needed a scenario.  For a change, I thought it would be nice to use some lighter ships such as frigates and destroyers, rather than the more usual cruisers and above.  Right, so what are these light forces to do?  Hmm... I know - how about escaping from a blockaded planet!  One side (let's call them "Rebels") have been discovered operating from a remote world.  The local enemy light forces (I'll call them "Imperials") have penned them in there, but are awaiting heavy units before they can assault the base itself.  The Rebels must escape before the rest of the Imperial fleet arrives, or they'll be caught and annihilated.  How's that?

The Scenario

Initial forces were as follows:

Imperial

• Monarch (large destroyer)
• Despot (large destroyer)
• Hammer (frigate)
• Iron Fist (frigate)

Imperial ships have decent medium range firepower, mostly concentrated in the frontal arc.
The blockading squadron was permitted to set up anywhere on the map (but beware the planet's defences; see below).  Their goal: stop all the Rebel scum from escaping!

Rebels

• Tiger (destroyer)
• Panther (destroyer)
• Lynx (destroyer)
• Leopard (destroyer)
• Martian Princess (light freighter)
• Olympic (light freighter)
• Lady Godiva (medium freighter)
• Peregrine (small free trader)

Rebel destroyers have a powerful short range punch, but are weak at longer distances.  Freighters are mostly unarmed and are not very robust!
In addition to the ships, the planet contained:

• 2 missile bases.  Each could fire 1 salvo of missiles per turn up to a range of 24" (the missiles would then home in on the nearest enemy within 6", thus giving them an absolute maximum range of 30", if you were lucky).  Given that the biggest enemy ship was only a destroyer, these bases were a very useful way of holding the Imperials at a distance!

As the evacuation progressed, 2 Rebel ships would launch from the planet each turn.  An initial speed of 6 was permitted for the turn on which a ship launched.  This represented the Imperials' uncertainty about Rebel activities on and near the planet rather than any unusual powers of acceleration (besides, a thrust-2 freighter wasn't going anywhere very much without such an initial boost!).  After this special deployment move, all Rebel ships had to rely on their engines as normal.

Victory Conditions

To escape, a rebel ship had to exit the far end of the table with its warp drive functioning, or at least with the capacity to mend it if damaged.

The Rebel players were given 3 "items" that they must preserve:

1. A popular hero of the rebellion
2. An important Rebel diplomat/statesman (/princess?)
3. Plans for the next part of their campaign.

Each item could be carried on any ship, decided in advance.  The Imperials wouldn't know which ship or ships held the Rebel items.  If all 3 of the items were saved then the Rebels won a major victory, if 2 then it would be a minor Rebel victory.  The Imperials would win a minor victory if the Rebels saved only 1 and would crush the rebellion completely if none escaped.

The Game

The Imperials set up in a line, holding their position just outside the range of the planetary missile bases.  Rebel ships began to leave; first the Martian Princess and the Tiger went one way, then the Lady Godiva and the Lynx headed in a different direction.

More Rebel ships left the planet, but the first pair were now approaching the Imperial gun line.  Initially, the Star Destroyers concentrated their fire on the Tiger.  Although most of their shots missed, one lucky hit from an ion cannon vapourised the Rebel warship.

The North

In the excitement, both Imperial frigates edged forward to try to get a better shot as the Martian Princess sped past them.  They failed to halt the fleeing freighter (though it was badly damaged).  In return, the planetary missile base fired a speculative salvo towards the Hammer; 3 of the 6 missiles had just enough fuel to home in on the Imperial frigate and blow it to bits!

The first pair of Rebel ships had now gone (one destroyed and one heavily damaged), so the Imperial ships to the north concentrated on the third pair.  Despot exchanged fire with the Rebel destroyer Panther and came off better.  Indeed, Panther lost most of her weaponry and sensors, along with her engines.  Her one remaining damage control team spent the rest of the game desperately trying to bring the warp drive back on line!

Iron Fist managed to damage the Olympic, though not seriously.  However, more missiles were launched from the Rebel planet and some of them locked on to the Imperial ship.  Like her sister ship, the small frigate could not withstand such firepower and was lost with all hands!

Meanwhile, the last 2 Rebel ships (the destroyer Leopard and the small, fast trader Peregrine) thought they could now sneak through the unguarded hole in between the 2 Star Destroyers.

The South

On the near side of the table, the Lynx was badly damaged by medium range fire from the other Imperial destroyer before she could reach effective range for her own weapons.  Out of control after a bridge hit, Lynx sailed off the side of the board (where she would have been an easy target for Imperial ships in the next sector).  The blockaders' strategy seemed to be clear: target the warships in preference to the freighters!

Monarch was then perfectly lined up for a shot at the defenceless Lady Godiva when an extraordinary thing happened.

We were playing this game using my prototype deck of event cards.  At this point, the Rebel team decided to play an Energy Vortex card.  Luckily for them, the Monarch was selected randomly and was spun round by 2 points to starboard.  This left her ion cannon unable to bear on the intended target, though beam weapons did a small amount of damage.

Not to be outdone, the Imperial admiral played a Rogue Comet card.  Again, the player got lucky; the comet appeared very close indeed to the Lady Godiva as she fled along the edge of the board.

The poor Lady Godiva barely made it past the comet when she came face-to-face with yet another Imperial ship.  This was the Iron Fist II, coming in as reinforcements (because one player had lost his entire command).  However, the transport had built up a very considerable speed by this time and wasn't about to be stopped by some puny little frigate.  The Iron Fist II managed to get off one quick shot (which missed) before the Rebel freighter went hurtling past and away into hyperspace!

Back in the Middle

The gap between the 2 Imperial destroyers wasn't as large as it seemed, especially since the Monarch had been spun round towards the remaining Rebel ships.  She fired on the destroyer Leopard and did considerable damage.  Meanwhile, the Rebel freighter Olympic did a desperate jink to avoid the Despot, at least for now!

Seeing that the Rebel ships were now pulling out of range at high speed, the Imperial admiral played a Plasma Fire event.  This affected the Peregrine, much to the dismay of the Rebel players.  However, a small, dustbin-shaped repair droid managed to put out the fire before it could cause any real damage.  The crew of the damaged Leopard transported over to the Peregrine and the Free Trader made her escape too!

The last Rebel transport (the Olympic) was almost safely out of range by the time that Monarch could draw a bead on her.  Once again, the Imperial ship got lucky; the small freighter was blown to pieces by a direct hit.

Summary

The Imperials lost 2 frigates (the 3rd one, Iron Fist II, made an accidental high-speed pass of the planet after a manoeuvring error, narrowly missing both the rogue comet and the furious missile salvos from the automated defence systems).  I doubt the Emperor will be bothered by this; frigates are completely expendable.

Rebel losses were as follows:

• Tiger: destroyed
• Lynx: lost (out of control and heading for another Imperial blockade sector)
• Leopard: lost (abandoned, crew saved by being transported to Peregrine)
• Panther: damaged, but escaped.
• Martian Princess: damaged.  Escaped, but with a warp core breach!  Very hairy for 4 or 5 turns, but eventually managed to bring it under control.
• Olympic: destroyed
• Lady Godiva: escaped, slightly damaged
• Peregrine: escaped, undamaged

And what of the Rebel special objectives?  The Rebel Hero and the Rebel Diplomat were both on the Peregrine (somewhat traditional!), while the Rebel Plans were on the Lady Godiva.   Since both these ships escaped intact, the game was a resounding victory for the Rebels, in the sense that any evacuation can ever be a victory!

Full Thrust: The Evacuation of Eridani Prime

Introduction

The remote Kzinti farming planet of Eridani Prime has been plagued by minor raids from Orion pirates for some time.  However, worrying news has just come from a spy; the Orions are planning a much larger assault that will overwhelm local defences.  Hurriedly, the Kzin gather what ships they can muster and prepare to leave, but just as they set off sensors indicate the arrival of a number of unknown vessels!

The Scenario

Beginning of turn 1.  Half the Kzinti forces are leaving the planet, but Orion raiders are poised on the left and the right.

On the face of it, this is a fairly standard convoy "gauntlet" scenario:

• The defenders have about 400 NPV of warships and a large number of assorted freighters; any of their ships that can reach the far end of the table (and still have a working hyperdrive!) are deemed to have escaped.  To prevent overcrowding, half the defender's ships will leave the planet (i.e. arrive on their baseline on the table) on each of turns 1 and 2.
• The attackers have about 600 NPV of warships and will arrive on turn 1, on any edge in the further half of the table.

However, just to ring the changes, I decided to randomly assign each of the 4 naval captains (but not the freighters) a random objective; these would determine the winner of the game rather than the capture, destruction or escape of the convoy.  The possible, vaguely worded objectives for the Orion were:

• The enemy killed your brother!  Vengeance will be yours!  Destroy as many enemy warships as possible.  Nothing else matters!
• Look at all that loot! You’re going to be rich!  Capture at least one merchant ship.  Nothing else is important!
• Don’t take risks with your nice, new ships!  It would be nice to stop the convoy, but you must try to avoid getting damaged!

Possible Kzinti objectives were:

• It’s not safe here!  You might get killed!  Run away!  Exit your ships from the table.  However, you must wait until at least one other ship has left; otherwise you’ll be accused of cowardice!
• Save the children and women!  Use whatever means you can to protect the merchant ships!
• Treachery!  At least you’ll go down fighting!  Destroy as many enemy warships as possible.  The merchantmen can look after themselves!

The Forces

From the right came the Orion forces of Rear Admiral G: the heavy cruiser Erebus and the corvettes Pirate and Buccaneer.  This was a very powerful force, but the admiral's objective was "Don’t take risks with your nice, new ships!", so any damage taken would count against the player when deciding who had won.

From the left came the slightly weaker squadron of Commodore A: the light cruiser Pegasus and the frigates Magician and Sorceror.  Their commander drew the "Look at all that loot! You’re going to be rich!" objective; this looked like a very good fit as the Pegasus was equipped with a needle beam that was perfect for selectively knocking out engines or other vital systems without too much collateral damage.

For the Kzinti, Strike Leader M entered in the middle of the first wave of merchantmen on turn 1.  He had the light cruiser Fang and the destroyer Tiger under his command, but was secretly thinking "It’s not safe here!  You might get killed!  Run away!"

The rest of the Kzinti warships came on in the second turn and were controlled by Pack Commander J.  His squadron comprised the destroyers Panther, Leopard and Lynx and his objective was to "Save the children and women!"

The Early Turns

From the beginning, both Orion groups advanced cautiously, whilst the convoy and its escorts accelerated as hard as they could, aiming to breeze past the raiders' lighter squadron whilst keeping the Orion heavy cruiser on the far side of the asteroid field.
The Kzinti light cruiser launched a salvo of missiles at her Orion counterpart but badly overestimated the enemy ship's speed; the missiles were well short of the target.  The Orion heavy cruiser managed an immensely lucky long-range shot with her beam weapons and gutted the leading Kzinti destroyer (Tiger).  So much for her commander's secret objective of "Run away!  You might get Killed"!  This did trigger some retaliatory fire from the Kzinti fleet; whilst the shots didn't cause any systems failure on the Erebus, they unwittingly hurt the admiral's victory conditions of "Don’t take risks with your nice, new ships!" by bending the hull plating.

As the merchantmen swept past the barely-moving Orion ships, the Santa Teresa (dark blue, to the right of the first line) was targeted by the Pegasus' needle beam.  She suffered major engine damage, just as the Orion commodore hoped.
On the other side, the Orion's Erebus unleashed a full cruiser volley at the bulk carrier Pride of the Orient.  She survived, but took terrible damage.  Most of her systems were wrecked and her holds breached.  Since she was determined to be carrying flour (see here), she left a long cloud of fine, white particles in her wake.
Other exchanges of fire between the various warships left several of the smaller combatants on both sides scarred.  In particular, the closer Orion squadron suffered as the Magician was reduced to a hulk and the Sorceror took an unlucky hit to her fire control (and thereafter played no useful part in the game).

The Trap is Sprung?

The raiders were now well placed to turn after the convoy and use their superior acceleration to run it down.  However, as the freighters and their escorts went hurtling past, both Orion commanders made terrible blunders!  The Pegasus turned right instead of left; while on the bridge of the Erebus confusion reigned as her captain failed to give any orders at all (In past games, I've been quite relaxed about allowing some of the younger club members to do what they intended rather than the orders they actually wrote.  However, the Full Thrust rules are very clear about the penalties for impossible or unintended movement orders).  This left both Orion heavy units badly out of position, while their lighter ships were either on the wrong side of the asteroid field or were battle-damaged and ineffectual.

To add to the farce, both sides fired on the damaged, drifting bulk carrier.  The Kzinti warships beamed the crew off and then the Leopard tried to scuttle her with phaser fire, but missed.  At the same time, the Erebus fired at long-range, but this time her near-legendary accuracy deserted her and she also missed.  This was much to the relief of the other Orion commander, who was still hoping to capture a prize!  Erebus did manage to destroy a couple of small freighters instead (the Olympic and the Martian Princess).

As the convoy fled and left the Orions in their wake, a few parting shots finally managed to destroy the Pride of the Orient as well as the destroyer Lynx.  But this was too little, too late and the pirates could only watch as their targets fled into hyperspace.

Conclusion

So, who won?  Let's see:

• Orion Rear Admiral G was fuming because of the minor damage to his flagship (Erebus) and moderate damage to the corvette Pirate.  He hadn't wanted any risk to his shiny, new ships.
• Orion Commodore A failed to capture anything and was left without any loot.
• Kzinti Strike Leader M (in the light cruiser Fang) did manage to run away, but his other ship (Tiger) didn't make it.
• Kzinti Pack Commander J tried to protect the women and children in the merchantmen, but couldn't prevent the destruction of the Pride of the Orient, Olympic and Martian Princess.  At least he beamed the crew off the former before she was destroyed.

The victory conditions were deliberately left a bit vague and open to interpretation.  Who do you think deserves the medals and who should be demoted for this encounter?