Why Sci Fi

A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I was getting into sci fi gaming. For most of my gaming career, sci fi received virtually no attention. Most of the time (especially in the ‘90s) I preferred historical. I did not dislike sci fi. I adored Star Wars when it came out (although I was far less excited about the later movies) and I religiously watched Star Trek. Playing the Star Wars: The OldRepublic MMO RPG spurred an interest in sci fi gaming. I realized that the genre had a few advantages

1.      Open Ended – when devising a historical (or even imagi-nations) or fantasy RPG campaign, I am strongly tempted to map out as much of the setting as possible. This approach can quickly derail the campaign as I pour my energies into preparing rather than gaming. I learned from the Star Wars MMO that a sci fi campaign does not need detailed maps. It is very easy to just plop a planet where needed without having it mapped out first. After all, the galaxy is a big place so the mapmakers may have easily overlooked that planet that seemed to have sprung out of nowhere.

2.      Substitutable – This dawned on me as I was developing my spaceship battle rules, which are modeled after WWII naval battles. With some imagination, practically any historical (or fantasy) conflict could be reproduced using sci fi minis. Want to do Jutland in commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of WWI? Pull out your spaceships. Gallipoli could become a landing on a hostile planet. Using this approach, you don’t have to paint up new forces each time you get the itch to do a new period. Just convert it to a sci fi scenario.

3.      Accuracy Not Needed – You never have to worry about someone criticizing the historical accuracy of your miniatures (unless you use a pre-existing setting, i.e. Star Trek. I just find it so much easier to create my own universe). You can also take a science fantasy approach, which allows you to ignore some science as well. In my universe, spaceships can easily jump across half a galaxy in little time; I just don’t worry how.

4.      Scratch Building – because you don’t have to worry about historical accuracy, you can get by with simple scratch built forces (like I did with my navies and armies). This saves money.

Overall, I am finding that sci fi is easier than any other genre.

More on the 12 Games of Christmas

The 12 Games of Christmas has been going strong (much to the delight of my cat Thomasina, who loves games). Here are some of the games we've been playing:

Oz Fluxx and Cthulhu Fluxx

We played a couple of hands of Oz Fluxx with my brothers. They each won one. My wife gave her brother a copy of the Cthulhu version. I did not play with them (Dragon Age called) bu they tried it out.

Downton Abbey

A board game about the show. Players are servants at Downton Abbey. They are assigned tasks and must race around the house to complete them, upon which they earn "bells." The player who earns the most bells wins the game.

My wife called it a "baby game" (a term she learned from Felicia Day, one of the producers of Tabletop). By this, she means that there is not a lot of thought required. You have 3 tasks assigned to you so you can optimize your route, but that's about it. You are pretty much at the mercy of the dice and cards. Nevertheless, it was a fun diversion.

Twelve Days

A Christmas-themed trick-taking card game. Cards are the gifts from the song Twelve Days of Christmas so the deck has one partridge in a pear tree card, 2 turtle dove cards, etc. You play 12 tricks representing the 12 days. The point values increase per day (the first day is worth 1 point and the twelfth night is 12 points). First, each player must give a card to the player on their left, then players bid for the trick. The player who bids the lowest gets the trick. High cards have value, too. At the end of the game you earn bonus points for having the most of a numbered card. For example, if you had the most drummers drumming (12-point cards) you would get 12 bonus points.

This was a neat little card game. There is an interesting tension trying to decide what to give your neighboring player. Giving them low cards could help them win tricks but high cards could lead to bonus points. Also, it pays to conserve some of your low cards for the later tricks. It's an entertaining holiday game.

Courtier
By the same people and set in the same world as Love Letter, You are an influence peddler at the royal court of the kingdom. You gain points by fulfilling petitions, which you complete by influencing powerful members of court. It is essentially a resource management game with an intrigue at court theme.

This was a bit more difficult and longer than our usual games. Halfway through my wife commented that she liked it but it dragged a bit toward the end. It seems that this was partially due us only having 2 players. I think it would go quicker with 3-4. Another factor was that the end of game card was at the very bottom of the pile. A different shuffle could have ended the game earlier. Nevertheless, it was a more enjoyable challenge than Downton Abbey.

Dixit
My brothers visited Saturday night and we played Downton Abbey (which was a gift from one of my brothers). The hit of the night, though, was Dixit, which I described in an earlier post. After we finished one game, my brother wanted to play it again!

We finished the weekend with some more Cthulhu Fluxx last night. By my count, we actually played 14 games!

Year End Reflections

Back in January, I made some “predictions” about where my gaming was headed. Let’s see how things actually went:

Elder Scrolls – I mentioned the release of Elder Scrolls Online and how I expected it cut into my tabletop time. My wife didn’t like it and I have tired of MMOs so we really didn’t get into it. Instead, I got my wife (and my cat) into board games big time. Pretty much every weekend we hold a Family Game Night.

Francesia – as predicted, I have abandoned 15mm. It looks like I’ve adopted 2mm and 6mm. The Grayrock Revolution is still going on (unfortunately, I only played one scenario since March).

Illustrate my RPG sessions – as I mentioned earlier in December, I have only made slight progress.

Other Thoughts
Also, I have blogged more than last year (123 posts and counting vs. 82, a 50% increase). I’ve been enjoying the blog and have been using it as a gaming diary wherein I post random gaming thoughts as well as actual game reports.

Last year I mentioned one of the positive aspects of GADD (gamer’s attention deficit disorder) was experimentation with new genres. When I started this blog in early 2013 I really did not expect sci-fi to become so prominent in my gaming but it has really taken a hold (I’ll examine why in my next post).

RETROSPECTIVE - War Game Campaigns

I mentioned before that my father had a copy of Donald Featherstone’s War Game Campaigns. 

This book would have an enormous impact on me, even though I never used the rules presented within its pages. Oh, I tried, but I failed miserably. The problem was that I had the rules for campaigns but not the rules for actually fighting the battles! Therefore, I was totally confused how to go about it. When I was about 13, I used a big piece of poster board to create a map of the coast of Saxon England for Viking raids, akin to what Featherstone did in his book. I used Legos as markers but I just did not know how to run combats! So my first attempt at miniature wargaming died aborning. Instead, I remained a board gamer, until a newfangled game called Dungeons and Dragons lured me in.

Nevertheless, I found War Game Campaigns to be inspirational. Again and again, I eagerly read his battle reports and found myself wanting grand campaigns with miniature soldiers fighting it out over simulated terrain. I would eventually take up miniature gaming, but that is a story for another day.

P.S. Eventually, my Dad gave me his copy of War Game Campaigns, which I still have, and still read, from time to time.

This Week's Handiwork

I did not expect to play any miniature wargames during my vacation time. Between Dragon Age, the 12 Games of Christmas, holiday preparations, and so on, I've been swamped.

One of my non-gaming projects was to do some repair work on my LARP gear. The handles on both my shields broke and needed repair. I also wanted to make a new cover for my friend's mace. I sewed an orange cover so that it looked somewhat like a torch.

Here is a picture of my finished handiwork:

A madu, a "flame" mace, and a shield

With all that, I managed to squeeze in a game, which I describe below.

The Siege of Grayrock City - A One-Hour Wargames Scenario

A while ago I posted about the upcoming Neil Thomas book, One-Hour Wargames. I picked it up on my nook a few weeks ago, and have been thinking about trying out the rules. Well, Kaptain Kobold over at the Stronghold Rebuilt beat me to the punch. His post inspired me to give them a whirl. I decided to run a horse and musket scenario, so naturally I set it in Francesia. It offered a perfect opportunity to (perhaps) finish the Grayrock Revolution.

I randomly rolled 2 armies from the table Thomas provides. This random army generator is one of the neat features of his book that I will probably use frequently. Anyway, one army had 3 infantry units, 2 artillery units, and 1 cavalry unit. I decided it would be the Bluderians who are besieging Grayrock City. The other army (the Grayrock rebels) had 3 infantry, 1 artillery, and 2 skirmishers. I then randomly rolled a scenario and got #22 - ambush. Ironically, this scenario calls for an ambush of an army attacking a town. Perfect! I had to reduce the ambushing army so the rebels lost an infantry unit and skirmisher.

The Battle
In the last significant action of the Grayrock Revolution, a popular uprising seized the capital city from their Bluderian overlords, keeping the governor trapped in Grayrock Castle, Black Bart managed to escape the city and warn the Bluderian field army, which hurried back and put the city under siege. Esquire Giovanni decides to spring a trap on the besiegers.

The citizens of Grayrock City manned the city's guns and began firing on the Bluederians. Meanwhile, Giovanni moved his ambushing force through the woods near the city.

Note - I used Thomas's rules as written (except using centimeters instead of inches for measurements). This entailed free movement so I did not use my grid. Each infantry unit is comprised of 2 stands. Artillery and cavalry don't have stands so I placed them on the field spaced out with approximately the specified frontage.

Starting positions.

 Giovanni's skirmishers (white coats) remained in the woods while the infantry moved out and began firing on the Bluderian infantry on the left flank. The shocked Bluderians reacted slowly, but soon were sending help to the flank. By then, however, the leftmost infantry succumbed to the combined rebel fire.

The Bluderian's left flank crumbles

 But the Bluderians recovered, and reinforcements entered the fray. Cavalry moved to the flank, preparing to charge.

 Note - I had a slight issue because my board is narrower than Thomas's recommendation (even after converting to centimeters, my board is about 6cm too small). To compensate, I allowed the Bluderian cavalry to swing off the board slightly.

The Bluderians reposition

 Sustained fire from the city and from the rebel infantry wiped out one of the Bluderian artillery units, but the cavalry charged the redcoat infantry (on loan to the rebels from Redgrave).

Bluderia's central artillery is destroyed but the cavalry charges.

 After repeated charges, the Bluderian cavalry routed the redcoats while the Grayrock infantry advanced to aid the town's guns.

Cavalry rides over the redcoats

 The combination of firepower from the town and infantry blasted another Bluderian regiment to pieces. Yet the cavalry prepared for another charge.

Another Bluderian infantry unit is shot to pieces.

 Accurate fire from the Bluderian right managed to disperse the townsfolk plying the city's guns. The Grayrock infantry found itself threatened by the victorious Bluderians and then was struck by a cavalry charge. The Grayrockians did not stand a chance.

The Grayrock infantry succumbs to a cavalry charge.

 All that remains is Giovanni's skirmishers in the woods. The Bluderians pull out of musketry range and then began to pound away with artillery. Giovanni decided that discretion was the better part of valor and retreated through the woods. 

Final position.
Unlikely to survive, the white coated skirmishers will withdraw.

Impressions
How do I feel about One-Hour Wargames?

• They gave a quick (I forgot to keep track but it was less than an hour. I only made it through about 10 of the allotted 15 turns when I threw in the towel) and exciting game.
• Movement was very interesting. Because units cannot pass through each other, it was a challenge to maneuver units without blocking or interfering with other units.
• Nevertheless, I really like using grids (it simplifies things so much) so I was not too keen on having to measure movement or firing ranges.
• I like the simplicity of the combat rules. With minimal modifiers, they gave an interesting feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the various troop types.
• I also like that I did not have to remember a bunch of different ranges. All foot troops fired 12 cm while artillery fired 48 cm.
• Each unit can take 15 hits, which requires keeping track. I did so on a piece of paper. Because there were only 10 units on the board, it was not onerous. Nevertheless, I prefer systems without record-keeping (markers are OK as long as they are minimal).
• There is no command and control rules. I rather like some kind of C&C because it throws in some more variability that makes things more interesting for solo games.
• It includes 30 scenarios, along with a random army generator. I expect to make extensive use of these.

Overall, I don't think that I will be adopting these rules (I am too attached to grids and to markers rather than written records). Still, I am very glad that I picked up this book - the scenarios and army generator will be invaluable to me. I am intrigued by the 4 troop types per era and the simple combat rules; I am pondering how I can adapt them for my use.

Merry Christmas!

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:10-11 (KJV)

12 Games of Christmas - Part 2

We played 2 games last night.

Oz Fluxx
Fluxx is a very simple yet entertaining card game. The rules are simple: draw a card and then play a card. Your goal is to acquire "keeper" cards that match the goal. What makes the game challenging is that the goal, and even the rules themselves, can change due to the play of certain cards.

My wife loves the Oz books so she picked up the Oz version of Fluxx. We played 2 hands last night. In the first hand, I had the Wizard of Oz and Liquid Courage keeper cards in play. Elizabeth played a card that allowed her to draw an extra card, however she had to play that card. It was a goal card where you needed to have the Wizard and Liquid Courage in play. Insta-win for me! In the second game, she had Toto and I had Dorothy. The goal was to have both those cards in play. I then drew and played a card that allowed me to steal a card from her. I stole Toto and the win!

Battle Cry
After a couple of hands, my wife was ready for another game. She asked for a rematch of Battle Cry. She wanted to be Robert E. Lee so we decided to play the 2nd day of Gettysburg. I had a pair of leadership cards which allowed attached generals to order their unit, and provide an extra combat bonus. I was set up to attack her line when she hit me with forced marches in consecutive turns. Her grand assault punched a hole in my center-right. She then built fieldworks and clobbered any unit that tried to repel her. After destroying a bunch of my units and killing a general, she used a sharpshooter to take out another general. My troops had enough; Gettysburg was lost. Final score 6-1. Here is the final position:

Thomasina skipped Fluxx (she's not too keen on card games; she likes shiny components) but she hung out with us for Battle Cry.

Thomasina on her chair.
She turned her back on me because she hates the camera

The 12 Games of Christmas

As I've mentioned before, my cat Thomasina is a huge gaming fan. So we decided to give her a holiday surprise that we are calling the 12 games of Christmas. While I'm on vacation, we'll be playing a game every night. We may not get in a full 12 games but we'll give it our best shot.

So far we've played the following:

Takenoko
I've mentioned this game before but haven't discussed it in much depth. In it, you are one of the royal gardeners in Imperial Japan. The Emperor has recently received a giant panda as a gift and has released the creature in your gardens. You need to keep the panda fed on bamboo while maintaining the garden. Throughout the game you will pick random objective cards, which involve either feeding the panda, growing bamboo. or setting up colored plots of land into specified patterns. The game ends after a player completes 7 objectives (the remaining players get one last turn). The player with the most points (each objective card earns points; tougher objectives give you more points).

Takenoko components

Originally, my wife wanted this game because it has a cute panda figure. However, it has actually become one of my favorite games (which is a surprise because it doesn't include combat). It is short and simple but requires strategic thought. Because the map is modular and objectives are random, the game is different every time, making it eminently replayable.

My wife and I played Saturday. She raced out to a lead, and actually made it to 7 objectives first. However, I was able to complete a couple of objectives in the final turn and the game ended in a tie. I won the tiebreaker (I fed the panda the most).

Love Letter
We followed Takenoko with a quick game of Love Letter, a simple but intriguing card game.

You are a courtier trying to sneak love letters to the princess. Will you succeed, and win the princess' heart? In my case, the answer was no. My wife raced out to an early lead, and managed to hold on for an easy win.

Boss Monster
Our Sunday game was Boss Monster, another enjoyable card game.

This time, you are are a "boss" monster. Your goal is to build a killer dungeon, lure in unsuspecting adventurers, and slay them. The first "boss" to harvest 10 adventurer's souls wins. But be careful; if your dungeon isn't powerful enough, those adventurers could wound, or even kill, you!

I was Seducia, the sorceress of sexiness.

My wife was Cerebellus, the Father Brain.

I was able to create the deadliest dungeon. However, Cerebellus had access to powerful magic that it used to destroy any adventurers that entered its lair. As a result, Cerebellus (aka my wife) collected 10 souls first to become the boss monster.

Battle Cry
Last night we trotted out a modern classic - Battle Cry (I have the original edition from around 2000).

I hadn't played it in years, primarily because I had lent it to a friend, who misplaced it. Well, he found it and I brought it home. It's been sitting around and my wife noticed it. Surprisingly, she suggested we play it. We played the Bull Run scenario. My wife was the Confederates. Early in the game, she pushed her cavalry forward on my right flank, and scored a few flags. I then began to push forward in the center and caught up to her. She was up 5 flags to 4 when I got a card that let me order 3 units in the center. I took out her remaining cavalry and then pushed over the hills to finish off retreating Confederate infantry. Two more flags for a hard fought 6-5 victory.

By the way, Thomasina watched it all.

2014 in Review

Because I am off work this week, I decided to get a head start on the end-of-year reflections. Last year, I noticed quite a few blogs (including the Stronghold Rebuilt) posted a pictorial year in review so that’s what I’m going to do this year (albeit with some commentary)

Early in the year, my focus was on the Grayrock Revolution, such as this battle in Balderdash Pass.

Battle of Balderdash Pass

 I briefly experimented with dungeon crawl rules. Using my latest version, we completed the quest for the Silver Psalter.

Fighting the necromancer and his zombie hordes

 Then I went into a lull. I experimented with paper miniatures (although I never used them)

A paper medieval army

 In June, I caught World Cup Fever.I began experimenting with a set of soccer rules I found via The Miniatures Page. These eventually morphed into rules for a grav-ball style game.

From there, my interest turned medieval. I began a series of battles set in medieval Francesia, where Redgravian raiders attacked the settlements of the crumbling Empire.

Ragnar's Raid

Medieval battles:
This one in 6mm

Disaster in Transflumia

And one in 2mm

 Late in the year, my attention shifted to sci fi combat. I scratch built some spaceships and engaged in battles among the stars.

Battle of Artemesia

Then my sci fi forces landed upon an alien planet and duked it out with the army of a dictatorial coup.

Battle of Selenia

RETROSPECTIVE: Afrika Korps

Lately, I have been perusing old posts on the Grognardia blog. One series he did was RETROSPECTIVE, where he looked back on old games. I was particularly intrigued by his reminisces about his experiences with the game in question and its influence on him. I decided that I am going to look back on the games that have had the greatest impact on my gaming history.

First in the series is one the first "real" wargames (in contrast to Risk or army men on the floor) I ever played - Afrika Korps by the much-lamented Avalon Hill.

My father was a closet wargamer. By that I mean I never saw him play with other people, but he had a small stack of Avalon Hill wargames stacked on the bookshelf (along with a copy of Wargame Campaigns!). I was probably around 10 or so when I got him to teach me how to play. We battled over the fields of Waterloo and Gettysburg (he also had Blitzkrieg but we never tried it). My favorite at the time, however, was Afrika Korps.

Being one of the early Avalon Hill games, the mechanics were quite simple. The counters represented military units and each has a movement factor and strength factor listed on it. Combat was a simple affair of adding up the strengths of the units involved, determining the odds, and rolling on a results chart. Simple stuff that even a 10-year-old could grasp.

Perusing on boardgamegeek, I noticed some complaints about balance and that was certainly my experience (the allies always won, but that could have been the result of my poor generalship). I always played the Germans and I was determined to break through to Alexandria. I would race my troops along the coastal road as rapidly as possible, but I kept getting stymied by Tobruk. Again and again, my attack would grind to a halt there. I think I may have taken it once, but I never got to Alexandria.

North Afrika.
Germans start on the left and have to take Alexandria on the right.

I may have gone down in defeat numerous times, but this game was a revelation as it opened up the world of adult wargaming to me. I realized that you could grow up and still play with soldiers in some fashion. To this day, wargaming has remained a source of intellectual exercise and an inspiration to my imagination. It is probably one of the greatest gifts my father gave to me. Thanks Dad!

On Holiday!

I am off work all next week and I'm not going anywhere so I'll have more time to post. However, I'm not sure if I'll get in much mini gaming. You see, I've developed a tradition of playing a video game hard core during my holiday down time. Over the past few Christmases, I restored the Twilight Princess to her realm, helped stave off the Oblivion Crisis, defeated Alduin the World_Eater, and brought down the Enclave (i.e. I completed Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Fallout 3). So what's in store for this year?

Yeah, it's an old game, but it's one I never finished. There's been a lot of buzz lately about the Dragon Age: Inquisition, the latest game in the series. I kept saying to myself that I should complete the first game (which I started in 2011) so I decided to make it my holiday game of 2014.

I do plan to make regular posts. I have a year-end review in the works (it's pretty wordy so it will end up 2 parts) and my predictions for 2015. In addition, I am starting a new series of posts called RETROSPECTIVE.

Attack on Selenia

Battle 3 of the Artemesia Campaign

Despite the rebel's raid that drove off the battleship Crusader, Federation forces landed on the planet Artemesia and advanced toward the city Selenia. Their goal was to capture the rebel headquarters.

Contending forces
I am using the scratch-built units I created a week or so ago.

• Federation - 2 infantry battalions, 1 battalion of power infantry, 2 regiments of armor, and an artillery regiment (missile launchers). Federation forces have control of the skies and can call on air support.
• Rebels - 4 infantry battalions, 1 regiment of armor, and 1 artillery regiment (missile launchers)

The Rules

I am using my homegrown rules set, which is a mash-up of Song of Blades and Heroes and Memoir '44. I'll add commentary about the rules as I go.

The Battlefield

I painted my unit bases a shade of dark orange. I envisioned them duking it out on an alien planet. To match this, I cut out a 12" x 18" piece of orange cloth and divided it into 2" squares. The purple "woods" are made from a sponge. I don't yet have any alien hills so I used my standard hills. A couple blocks serve as buildings. The purple space ship (furthest row) represents the rebel HQ.

The Battle
This will primarily be a pictorial account, with occasional, additional comments.

Federation forces land outside Selenia and advance on the rebel HQ,
Federation air attacks wipe out rebel infantry on the right.

The rules borrow the activation system from Song of Blades and Heroes, where you roll 1 to 3 dice. Each success allows the unit to take one action (such as moving or attacking). One possible action is to call in an air strike (although an army will have a limit on the number of air strikes it can use).

Note that I am using orange buttons to represent hits. I think I will paint the tops black so they look like explosions (and will stand out against the orange background).

Federation forces pound the rebel armor (center).
The Federation elite armor swing along the left flank.

So far in this battle, the rebels had horrible activation rolls. In the first four turns, the rebels turn ended on the first unit. As a result, it looked like the Federation would win an easy victory. But the tides of battle can change quickly.

But a rebel ambush and the accurate gunnery of the rebel armor drive off the Federation tanks.

Another possible action is to launch a guerrilla ambush. A unit will appear out of nowhere (the black stand on the left) and launch a surprise attack. It will then disappear at the end of the turn. In this battle, the rebels had the ability to launch 3 attacks.

Federation armor continues their advances.

The Federation attacks seem to be paying off,
The rebel armor retreats from the hills.

Rebel counterattacks wipe out the elite Federation armor.

The rebel counterattacks (including an ambush) continue.
The Federation armor is destroyed.

Then the rebels begin pounding the Federation power infantry on the hill.

The power infantry deploys force shields.
The Federation infantry now takes the brunt of the rebel attacks.

And another possible activation is to raise force shields (represented by a half circle of translucent plastic). Essentially, these work like sandbags in Memoir '44.

At this point, it seemed unlikely that the Federation could secure its goal. However, I had no set conditions for a rebel victory so I decided to press on and see what the Federation forces could achieve.

The battle is interrupted when Catzilla demands attention.

Finally, missile and armor attacks rout the rest of the Federation infantry

With only one unit left, it became clear that the Federation had failed, so I ended the game.

During this battle, the rebel armor regiment (afterwards known as the Devil's Own) won renown due to its devastating attacks on Federation forces. One reason for its success was judicious use of the Rally activation. If successful, Rally allowed a unit to remove one hit. The DO rallied a few times during the game, keeping them alive long enough to strike deadly blows on the Federation.

Now repulsed, the Federation forces will need to regroup, and the campaign will continue!

Some RPG Thoughts

Over at my Tales of the Templars blog I have completed one Space Templar adventure and have begun a new one.

Early this year I mentioned that one of my goals for my RPGs was to illustrate my adventures. I haven't made a ton of progress on this, although I have been pulling monster illustrations from the internet for use in my posts, such as this one.

So far, I have not illustrated the space battles that feature prominently in Tales of the Space Princess adventures (you have to escape the "dark lord's" lair in a spaceship while pursued by his minions - kind of like the Millennium Falcon's escape). For my latest session, I put together this virtual board designed to look like a sensor screen.

It should suffice until I put together some minis and a board.

In other news, I was perusing old posts on Grognardia and came across a review of X-plorers, an old-school sci fi rpg. I liked what I read so I picked up a copy. Silly me; I paid for it and then found out that there is a free, no-art PDF version available. (I prefer no-art PDFs because they are cheaper than print and take up less disk space). Oh well, it was still money well spent. Definitely some good ideas that will be borrowed for my games.

An Orbital Battle

Battle 2 of the Artemesia Campaign

With the rebel fleet out of the way, elements of the Federation Navy descend upon the planet Artemesia. Federation capital ships assumed orbit around the planet preparing to bombard rebel military facilities. As one of these ships, the Federation battleship Crusader, neared orbit, rebel forces consisting of a destroyer and 3 fighter squadrons sortied to discourage the invaders.

Below is a pictorial account of the battle.

Crusader's sensors detect approaching enemy ships

A rebel fighter squadron and destroyer surge ahead

The Federation destroyer draw first blood.
The battleship has launched fighters which are vectored onto an intercept course.

Dogfight!
Meanwhile, the rest of the rebels move up

The Crusader's long range guns pummel the rebel destroyer.

The Federation fighters win the dogfight.
The rebel fighters make torpedo passes at the Crusader.

Battle swirls around the Crusader.

Torpedoes slam into the Crusader and her escort!

The Federation fighter squadron is defeated.

The Federation destroyer is crippled.
The Crusader suffers more torpedo damage.

Severely damaged, the Crusader jumps into hyperwarp.

After the engagement, the Federation fleet converged but by then the rebels had fled. Nevertheless, they performed stellar duty for their cause. Without an orbital bombardment, more rebels will be ready to meet the invaders.