Having made the silly tactical error of going too deep into Ork space and triggering too many PEFs, I now go about trying to get the Forlorn Hope out of a sticky situation.
Capital ships seem quite sturdy and the 2 AA turrets make it quite able to handle its own against individual flights. However, a squadron will make quick work of a small capital ship.
The game does have the odd quirk, but is immense fun!
NOTE: In case you missed them, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 5 of the battle report are all available.
Turn 20:
Activation Dice: Imperial 1 / Ork 6
Oh come on! This is a set-up! I’m wargaming solo, so the best I can do is accuse my other personality of cheating with the dice. More Ork reinforcements? Because there isn’t enough freakin’ green on the table already?
No one said this was a suicide mission!
Great, it is a flight of 2 Fighta-Bommas. Fanfreakintastic.
We determine their starting point. Lady Luck offers us a sarcastic smile after the swift kicks to nether regions she’s been delivering previously. They start off in the north-east corner. The Fighta-Bommas match my speed of 3, so I should be able to keep them at bay. Given they pack enough weapons to level an asteroid, that is probably a good thing. They are also Rep 3, which helps.
If they and the Bommas get close, it will be game over.
I have to move first. I proceed with my original plan of getting off the board as quick as I can.
My move puts me in scanner range of PEF 3, which resolves as a flight of 4 Fighta-Bommas. I explode in to a string of expletives that are completely unprintable. I storm around the room, cursing and cussing as I go.
The dog (a chunky Rottweiler), which spends its days lying at my feet and which, having indulged in the beer and fried chicken fiesta with me, and which is currently farting like a plasma reactor was located in its anus, ceases in its quest to destroy the ozone single-handedly and looks up at me.
My tirade continues for at least 10 minutes.
But life is not fair. And neither are battles. And, slowly, despite the toxic atmosphere the dog is creating, my oxygen starved brain comes to realise that this system beautifully recreates that.
When you solo wargame you don’t want a system that is predictable. And this really is seat-of-the-pants gaming.
More importantly, if I can get this worked up about a solo game, it must be good.
Realistically, my odds of surviving these coming attacks are very slim. But then the odds of waking up the entire Ork fleet were slim too. So we’ll have a go.
Right then. Time to move the Ork fleet.
The Ork Bommas swing off to begin a flanking manoeuvre. The Fighta-Bommas in the north-east follow the Bommas.
The lone Ork Fighta moves with the pilot unconscious.
PEF 1 on the southern edge wakes up and head 8″ towards the Forlorn Hope. PEF 2 moves 4″, but can’t be resolved because of the intervening dust clouds.
The two flights of Ork Fighta-Bommas, which are operating as a squadron, change course to kill me. At least they maintain their speed of 2.
Finally, PEF 4 moves 8″ towards the forlorn Hope, but is also blocked from scanners by the edge of the gas cloud.
The only shooting that can take place is against the Ork Fighta with the unconscious pilot. It feels cruel, but let’s at least take another Ork to Hell with us (as it won’t be long before we join him). Out of 10 shots from the combined turrets, we get 4 hits. 2 penetrate the shields. One damages the shields, while the other is a second cockpit hit. That destroys the fighter and the unconscious pilot.
Chalk up another one for the Forlorn Hope!
But how much longer can we survive?
Turn 21:
Activation Dice: Imperial 1 / Ork 5
I move first and continue on in my slim hoping of making it through 3 Ork PEFs and 8 Fighta-Bommas and Bommas.
I suddenly realize a mistake I have been making. While ships still move if they don’t activate, PEFs do not. So that means the Ork PEFs will remain stationary this turn.
After my movement I come into sight of PEF 4 and it resolves as NOTHING! The Ork Investment Level increases to 5, but that is one less PEF to worry about.
Could I survive?
The northern Fighta-Bommas and Bommas swing in to attack, but those big Bommas are slow hand hard to turn.
The squadron of Fighta-Bommas increase speed to 3 and swing in to the attack. There is a fair bit of juggling around as they move, but they are getting there.
With no shooting, we move on to Turn 22.
Turn 22:
Activation Dice: Imperial 2 / Ork 3
I count the hexes to the Imperial edge and discover it is 27 hexes. That is 9 more moves to reach my goal. Seeing as the Ork Investment Level can’t go above 5, I can hope for two double sixes in resolving the other PEFs.
I could also hope that Admiral Ariosto sends me a destroyer as back-up, but that doesn’t seem likely to happen.
I move first and bring it down to 24″ to freedom. I also spot PEF 2 and it resolves as 2 Bommas.
Oh joy. Oh wonder.
Well at least they are moving slow and facing the wrong way. And they are Rep 3.
Still, they do have big torpedoes. Yep, 2 of them. Each (I rolled for the multiple torpedo variant).
The northern groups of Fighta-Bommas and Bommas move after the Forlorn Hope. PEF 1 passes 2d6 and moves up into the gas cloud. I think we are going to have a surprise there as it is going to resolve at very close range.
The western Bommas increase their speed to 2 and begin to swing in to the Forlorn Hope. The Ork Fighta-Bommas on the western side of the map swing in to avoid the Bommas. The Orks are a bit bunched up and it is getting hard for them not to have a collision. You have to think carefully about your moves, or else you could turn your fighters in to space debris.
No one is in range of anything, so we move on to Turn 23.
Turn 23:
Activation Dice: Imperial 5 / Ork 5 => Re-roll: Imperial 5 / Ork 5 => Re-Re-roll Imperial 3 / Ork 6
I move first and begin switching direction. I know the Bommas are big, slow and take a long time to turn around. It is like driving a big station-wagon that has flat tires, is overloaded, and has no power steering. Only these station-wagons are loaded with guns and missiles. So if I can keep them turning, it may take them a while before they can get a lock on me.
And there are now 21 hexes to freedom.
The northern Fighta-Bommas and Bommas continue to pursue me. If I take an engine hit and lose speed they will devour me. I feel like a gazelle running before lions.
The western Bommas and Fighta-Bommas all line up before me. It is a wall of Orkish craft that stands between me and home.
The Orks fire first and the 4 Ork Fighta-Bommas unleash their torpedoes on the Forlorn Hope. The ship takes an Incoming Torpedoes test [1, 6 - pass 1d6] and will snap fire its turrets against them. Oddly, though, checking the rules, there is no difference between snap firing at a torpedo and firing normally at one. You still need a total of 10 to hit.
I roll the 10 shooting dice, assigning 2 dice to each torpedo and 3 to the first two.
I score two hits on the first torpedo [1, 5, 5], miss the second [1, 4, 3], hit the third [2, 6] and miss the fourth [4, 3]. So two torpedoes get through my AA fire. I roll all 5 of my star bonus dice to destroy the torpedoes, but miss with all of them (Stars get bonus dice equal to their rep that they can use as a re-roll dice – as Aramek is Rep 5, he has 5 re-roll dice. Once used, they cannot be replenished until after the battle).
However, there is another element to the Incoming Torpedo reaction test. My ship turns towards the torpedoes and moves 3 additional hexes (its current top speed). This move, has another torpedo run out of range and miss.
Let me explain this a bit better.
The torpedoes are fired by the Fighta-Bommas. There are four of them (A, B, C, D). They move to the hex containing the target. A moves 9 hexes, B moves 8, C moves 9 hexes, and D moves 8 hexes. The turrets then shoot. I hit A and C, leaving B and D.
I then make the move stipulated on the Incoming Torpedo chart, which says to turn towards the torpedoes and accelerate to maximum speed to avoid them. Now, the ship suddenly turning on a dime doesn’t make sense to me (and what if the torpedo is fired from behind you do you make a 180° turn?). So I make a normal move, trying to get the facing to end up towards the torpedoes.
The torpedoes then move to try and catch my ship. Being fired from small ships, they have a maximum range of 10″. They have to move another 3″ to catch me, so both B and D run out of fuel and dissipate harmlessly.
This seems a little odd to me. The mechanics of the game have been smooth, but this feels a little clunky. And I don’t like the idea of ships suddenly leaping forward because they have been fired on by torpedoes. In future games I am likely to change this. I’ll probably have fighter borne torpedoes move 5″ each turn for 2 turns, while capital ship torpedoes remain as they are. AA turrets can then engage them as they move, but once they are in your hex, you get your final reaction test to shoot them before they impact. And I will make a regular torpedo a 9 to hit, with snap fires requiring a 10.
But for now let’s carry on.
Note that the Forlorn Hope has not yet entered the gas cloud, so the PEF remains unresolved.
The Ork Fighta-Bomma guns are out of range so I move now to the two Bommas. They both fire their torpedoes. I make another Incoming Torpedo test and this time get a better result [5, 1 - pass 2d6]. That means I brace for impact and can re-assign any damage I take.
My AA turrets fire again, with 5 dice on each torpedo. I hit one 3 times and the other once. Both torpedoes are shot down.
Maybe I’m doing this wrong and all torpedoes should be grouped together and then tested for after they have moved, rather than resolving them by wing (so the torpedo reaction is taken after all firing is done, making torpedoes slower than guns). That would reflect the fact that a storm of torpedoes could overcome defences – and I would allow a move of half current speed, rounded up. That makes sense for me, but no matter how I hunt through the rulebook, there are no examples of it or explanations. Not even in the turn sequence (which says torpedoes move in the movement phase, but if those on small ships have a range of 10″ and a move of 10″, and are fired in the action phase, I assume they are only referring to capital ship torpedoes).
I resolve I will play it my way in the future.
Again I move the Forlorn Hope to face the torpedoes.
You will also note that I have ignored the Impact roll for the torpedoes. The rules place them (and turrets) as having shields equivalent to a medium/heavy fighter. To me that is a bit weird – why would torpedoes have shields? And why would turrets not be covered by the same shields as the ship?
So, I say, if you hit a torpedo, which is not easy, you destroy it. And if you shoot at a turret, you have to do it at the rating of the ship’s shields.
Now, while the Fighta-Bommas have guns that can punch through my shields, they have already acted this turn. The Bommas have nothing to shoot with. So I fire the Forlorn Hope’s AA turrets at targets A, B, and C (two Fighta-Bommas and a Bomma).
10 shots, split 3 on each target, with the extra one on target A.
With some lucky dice rolling, A takes 4 hits, B takes 2 hits and C takes 3 hits. One hit penetrates A’s shields and hits the cockpit. The pilot passes the knock down test and passes 1d6. He is unconscious for 4 turns. That was pretty lucky!
One shot penetrates B’s shields and damages its comms. It will activate as a Rep 3 until that is repaired and any missiles passing by it may target it instead.
C takes one hit through its shields and its shield generators are damaged. No shields for it until repaired.
B would normally take a received fire test at this point, but the Forlorn Hope is outside of its gun arc (a line of hexes extending directly in front of the ship).
So the turn ends.
And we’ll complete the action in the last post on this battle report.