|
OK, the solo rules have gone through a handful of playtest sessions (by me and a small group of supportive friends). Here's a report on how a small "The Raiders" scenario went this past weekend.
The human player took control of some of my painted Orks -- namely a Terror Ship "Skreamin' Deth" and six escorts (3 savage and 3 ravager) organized into two mixed squadrons. The Skreamin Deth' was equipped with a warlord w/ 2 re-rolls, boosted shields and torpedo bommerz.
Their objective was to do as much harm as possible to the AI fleet, nearly 1,100 pts of Imperial ships in the form of an Overlord, Dictator, 2 Lunars (one a nova cannon variant) and squadron of four cobras.
The AI was facing the sunward edge, and would suffer a -1 LD penalty for the first four Turns of the game.
The Orks came from astern, the Skreamin Deth' sandwiched between the two escort squadrons and everyone issuing "All Ahead" orders to try and close the gap. The squadron of 2 Savages and 1 Ravager tore towards the Cobras, which were parked relatively close to the Overlord. The Terror Ship and remaining gun/attack ships moved to the BC. As it was, the squadron approaching the Cobras was the only one to make its LD roll, and the player didn't want to use his re-rolls just yet.
All AI ships are empowered to "Come to New Heading" if the enemy's coming from astern. The AI fleet was, for the most part, largely able to swing around so that the Overlord now had its starboard guns pointed towards its threat and the Cobras were tearing towards their opponents head on. The AI's Attack Craft posture was rolled up as "Conservative" and four squadrons of Fury interceptors were launched from the Dictator to protect capital ships from inbound Ork ordinance.
This could go on forever, so I'll hit the highlights.
The first real shots were traded between the Cobras and half the Ork escorts. By the 2nd Imperial Turn the destroyers were still out of gun range, so they rolled for (And received) "All Ahead Full" and essentially walked a unified torp salvo right into the Orks at near point blank range. A Savage and a Ravager were reduced to scrap -- although the surviving Savage was able to later kill two Cobras with its heavy gunz.
By adopting a Conservative posture, the AI was able to intercept the first wave of Ork fighta bomberz before they did any harm, but later became "Aggressive," opening itself somewhat to ordinance attacks and a subsequent wave of torpedo bomberz was able to reach the Overlord and inflict a critical hit to its engines -- reducing its manueverability to where the Terror Ship was able to approach and conduct a boarding action (thanks to its oversized base). Ork boarders swarmed through the cruiser and all but hulked it (later died to heavy gunz fire).
By the 8th Turn, the Ork player had won as he'd received more Victory Points, but except for a couple of rough spots the mechanics seemed to provide for a solid game.
|
