Three space scenarios, one afternoon
About a week ago, we (Roger and I) tried a series of three small scenarios
with a theme of a quick Carnivoran raid on Federation space. We used teh Monday Knight Rules for space gaming, which features several distinct races with different weaponry and a subtle but effective way to model inertia. While fun, the result underlined the need for
careful reasoning of the victory conditions in a theme based scenario.
In scenario one, a Federated convoy, using a DDL and two
'armored pursuit ships' (which is really
a misnomer when you look at the armament) escorted a transport/cargo ship. The Carnivores simply needed to damage each
transport to a certain level..we decided on ten hits on armor and any internal
cargo or system boxes...to win. The Federated player had to exit a specific
side of the map, in order to cargo to the scheduled stop.
The 'Federation' side, with stand in Aquarian ships. In the far center area are the Carnivores' ships. The large ship is the transport.
The second scenario, a few moves into the game. My photo mojo was absent this day, I apologize for the 'meh' photos. You can see how hairy the Carnivoran commander is, at least his forearms. ;-)
The carnivores had a two Destroyers and a destroyer
leader. Over several turns the
required number of hits were inflicted on the freighters, while the Federation
ships managed to strip off a lot of Carnivoran armor but inflict little in the
way of internal damage.
In scenario two the Carnivores had to get their ships home, as
they eluded a Federation pursuit squadron consisting of a star bomber, DDL and a Destroyer.
In scenario three the Carnivores evaded a patrol squadron of
two destroyers and an armored pursuit ship. Roger is a crafty player!
We found that the rules allowed for the build up of speed
using the drift rule that allowed the Carnivores to control the length of the
scenario. Even though the drift started out nominal, three hexes for all ships,
the Carnivores used the tactic to make a running pass at the freighters, at
'medium range' score hits on the freighters and leave before the damage on
their ships got to the point of any real
danger of losing a ship , or even sustaining a lot of damage.
There were no missiles or fighters involved since the
smallest category of ships were present.
Back to the drawing board!
Comments
Ships can really accelerate rapidly in GK, especially small ones; this can allow them to traverse the table rapidly if that is an objective... otherwise it takes them out of the action very quickly after an initial pass.
You could change the goals so that armor hits on the freighter don't count, just internal structure hits. Or you could make it a requirement to capture the freighter (by knocking out the engines or jump drive, or driving off all the escorts) instead of damage it.
For the scenarios involving pursuit by the Terrans, instead of just escape, they have to destroy one or more of the ships to ensure no report gets back to Terran HQ.