| Brood Brother |
 |
 |
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2003 4:43 pm
Posts: 7258
Location: Sacramento, California, USA
|
Hi Guys,
12 March 2005:
- We started the game about 1:30pm and played until about 6:00pm, playing a total of seven turns, and conversing a lot during the game (Some game talk and a lot of non-game talk).
- We went out for pizza afterwards and stopped by a gaming store called Great Escape Games.
- Please forgive any mistakes I've made in recording the battle report since I'm not an expert with the Full Thrust game system.
----------------------------------
THE RETURN OF THE CRABS!
FULL THRUST: Kra'Vak VS. Alien Allied Fleet
Vince: Referee
OVERVIEW:
- The game was a blood match since George's Kra-Vak had hit the field three times before and mopped up Mike, Marcus and the rest of the guys each and every time.
- Mike and Marcus were using custom-designed fleets that were made with the design of crushing the crabs!
- No mercy for the crustaceans this game! 
- Vince opted to have us use the FT cinematic movement system.
- Each fleet had roughly 4,600 points worth of ships.
----------------------------------
KRA'VAK FLEET:
- The Kra-Vak fleet used George's large collection of GZG Full Thrust (FT) Kra'Vak models, a crab-like alien fleet fond of using using huge rail guns (Also known as mass drivers, gaus guns, etc.) and Blast Packs (shrapnel throwers, the equivalent of a Claymore mine in space that throws out thousands of projectiles to intercept incoming missiles or fighters - a primarily defensive weapon).
- George and I were pretty quick to decide that George should have overall command so I played subordinate to him. George has mopped up the FT games at Vince's place and the guys never seem to stop talking how vicious the Kra'Vak are so I was happy to be his subordinate. I volunteered to take any task force he gave me.
- George decided in the end that we would each take a task force and use a fighter move called the scissors to weave in and out of formations covering each others rears with out blast packs. George would concentrate on the lighter Narn fleet with a lighter task force of mostly medium cruisers and the large Kra-Vak task force of battle cruisers and battleships under my control (Maksim) would concentrate on the large more dangerous Cold Navy fleet. George rationalized that the lighter faster ships take more finesse to use. I agreed with him.
- The Kra-Vak had almost no intelligence on the weapons, tonnage or technology of the Alien Allied Fleet so we had nothing to guess about the threat levels of the enemy ships except for their relative sizes. (The Narn and Cold Navy falg ships had to be dreadnoughts which each ships being about 4 to 6 inches long or more, 100 to 150cm for you Metric types!)?
- George's Kra'Vak are painted in an inked mustard beige colour with red striped camouflage. ??
George - The Kra-Vak Grand Admiral:
TASK FLEET Fiddler's Claw (8 vessels)
- x4 CH Va'Dok - A heavy cruiser armed with: x2 Class Four Railguns, x1 Class One Railgun, x4 Blast Packs and x2 Fire Controls. A Va'Dok had x27 hull boxes and moves at an impulse speed of 6 units a turn. Kra'Vak vessels also have superior turning qualities.
- x2 CL Vo'Bok - A light cruiser armed with: x2 Class Three Railguns, x1 Class One Railgun, x4 Blast Packs and x2 Fire Controls. A Vo'Bok had x18 hull boxes and moves at an impulse speed of 6 units a turn. Kra'Vak vessels also have superior turning qualities.
- x1 CR Ko'Tek - A strike cruiser armed with: x3 Class Three Railguns, x1 Class One Railgun, x2 Blast Packs and x2 Fire Controls. A Ko'Tek had x21 hull boxes and moves at an impulse speed of 6 units a turn. Kra'Vak vessels also have superior turning qualities.
- x1 CE Si'Tek - An escort cruiser armed with: x2 Class Three Railguns, x2 Class One Railguns, x5 Blast Packs and x2 Fire Controls. A Si'Tek had x21 hull boxes and moves at an impulse speed of 6 units a turn. Kra'Vak vessels also have superior turning qualities.
Maksim - The Kra'vak Captain:
TASK FLEET Mondo Claw (5 vessels)
- x3 BB Ko'Vol - A battleship armed with: x2 Class Five Railguns, x3 Class One Railguns, x6 Blast Packs and x3 Fire Controls. A Ko'vol had x48 hull boxes and moves at an impulse speed of 4 units a turn. Kra'Vak vessels also have superior turning qualities.
- x2 BC Ti'Dak - A battlecruiser armed with: x2 Class Five Railguns, x2 Class One Railguns, x5 Blast Packs and x3 Fire Controls. A Ti'Dak had x36 hull boxes and moves at an impulse speed of 4 units a turn. Kra'Vak vessels also have superior turning qualities.
----------------------------------
ALIEN ALLIED FLEET (AAF):
- Mike had a fleet of Cold Navy miniatures that were attractively painted up in greens and blues. Marcus was operating a Narn fleet, miniatures from the Babylon 5 universe. The Narn were painted beautifully with purples and many windows and small details including star-speckled bases.
- Mike and Marcus were sharing a command with neither one in total control. They planned frequently and did a good job of coordinating forces.
- Mike had ships heavy in beam weapons and torpedos. Unfortunately, Mike's torpedos didn't seem to do well. His "dice support forces" weren't doing their jobs.
- Marcus had a large number of long-range missile wielding ships that would dart out of range and pepper the Kra-vak from afar. Mike also had a very large fighter wing of 2 heavy fighter squadrons and 6 regular fighter squadrons. Mike's fighters were mostly based on a captured UN Space Force super carrier that accompanied the Cold Navy task force.
- The Allied Alien battle plan (found out by me, Maksim, after the game) was to keep the Kra-Vak at range and concentrate fire on lighter ships crippling them with a combination of beam fire ordinance to weaken them for fighter strikes.
Mike - The Cold Fleet Grand Admiral:
Cold Navy Task Fleet (7 vessels)
- x1 DNS Musashi - A dreadnought armed with a bewildering load of weapons including: x2 torpedo launchers, x6 Class Three Beams, x2 Class One Beams, x2 Heavy Fighter Bays, and x6 Point Defense Systems (PDS). It has x60 hull boxes and moved at a speed of 3 impulse units.
- x1 CV Constellation - A very large United Nation Space Fleet carrier captured by the Cold Navy fleet and inducted into their ranks. It carried x6 Regular Fighter Squadrons, x6 Class One Beams and x8 PDS. It has x13 armor, x52 hull boxes and moved at 4 impulse units a turn.
- x2 CS Mogami - A Cold Fleet cruiser armed with: x2 Class Three Beams, x3 Class Two Beams, x2 Class One Beams, a torpedo launcher and x3 PDS. Mogamis have x30 hull boxes and move at a speed of 3 impulse units.
- x3 DD Yubari - A destroyer with armament of: x8 Class Two Beams, a torpedo launcher and x2 PDS. Yubaris have x20 hull boxes and move at a speed of 4 impulse units. ?
Marcus - The Narn Grand Admiral:
Narn Task Fleet (9 vessels)
- x1 DNS Morathi - A dreadnought armed with: x12 missile batteries, each with a separate fire control meaning that the dreadnought could target a whole fleet with as many missiles as it wanted to (Kind of like a Robotech missile broadside). It's secondary weapons were x3 Class Two Beams. It has 60 hull boxes and moved at 3 impulse units a turn.
- x8 FF Hellebron - These small PT boats were loaded for bear in the form of x2 missile batteries backed up by x2 Class 2 Beams. They only had 4 hull boxes but they could stay out of the way of larger ships if they chose to do so. They moved at 4 impulse units a turn. ?
----------------------------------
Turn 1:
- The two fleets square off against each other on either long end of a 4'x6' map table covered with black felt. The Allied Alien Fleet (AAF) has the following lines when viewed head-on from right to left:
x3 Cold Navy destroyers deployed in a line on the left flank (the right flank from the Cold Navy viewpoint)
---
Cold Navy Flag Group:
x2 Cold Navy Cruisers escorting a Dreadnought (On either ide of it)
x1 Cold Navy Dreadnought (flagship)
---
The center of the Allied Alien Fleet (AAF) is held down by the captured UNSF Carrier ready to deploy fighter where needed.
x1 Narn Dreadnought with a skirmish group of:
x8 Narn PT Boats deployed in a skirmish line on the right flank (left flank by their own viewpoint) ?
- The Kravak are deployed to the center of their deployment zone with the heavy task fleet to the left and the light task fleet deployed to the right (when viewed from behind facing the Allied Alien Fleet). ?
- The Allied Alien Fleet (AAF) launches fighters which apporach the Kra'Vak fleet and hover just out of range of Kra'
Vak AA weapons. The Cold Navy destroyers come full steam down the left flank of the battlefield deploying just out of range of Kra'Vak weaponry.
- The Kra'Vak fleet simply moves forward full steam with no complexity or sophistication whatsoever.
- Neither fleet is in weapons range whatsoever. ?
----------------------------------
Turn 2:
- The AAF slowly moves forward to the extreme range of their beam weapon range and opens fire doing very little damage. AAF fighters streak to the right flank of the Kra'Vak fleets hoping to be ready to make runs on wounded ships from: A MASSIVE MISSILE VOLLEY from the Narns. Every Narn ship launches a full spread of missiles at the light Kra'Vak task fleet, bombarding it heavily.
- George's light Kra'Vak task fleet pops numerous blast packs (More than a third of his one-shot defensive packs) and blocks most of the volley although 3 of his cruisers take very heavy damage and an additional one is crippled dead in the water with a possible reactor overload in six turns. ?
- Unfortunately for the Narns though, coming into missile range leaves the fragile PT boats in range of Kra'Vak railguns and Maksim's heavy task force knocks down 5 of the 8 PT boats while George's return fire takes out an additional one.
- Not a good start for the Narn's to have their fleet so devastated so early in the game. However, on the other hand, the brave little PT Boats have performed their task of savaging the Kra'Vak light task force and disrupting the Kra'Vak line.
- The Cold Navy destroyers harrass the Kra'Vak heavy task force at extreme beam range sitting out of range of Kra'vak railguns. A Kra'Vak Battleship takes some glancing blows losing a number of hull boxes.
----------------------------------
Turn 3:
- The AAF continues to ravage the Kra'Vak fleets with long-range beamfire. Kra'Vak ships begin to show considerable damage.
- The AAF fighter groups wings around the back of the Kra'Vak fleets hovering as a potent threat, waiting for members of the Kra'Vak pack to fall behind but wary of the dangerous Kra'Vak blast packs.
- The Kra'Vak begin to maneauver their task fleets rotating damaged vessels to the rear of compact formations and undamaged ships to the front of their respective task forces. This serves to spread damge out and keeping the AAF from scoring kills while Kra'Vak weapons keep firing.
- The last of the Narn PT boats are blasted out of the "water!"
- Cold Navy torpedo barrages are launched with no result whatsoever. Cold Navy captains wish they had bought their ordinance somwhere other than S-Mart. ?
----------------------------------
Turn 4:
- The two fleets pound each other!
- A Kra'Vak Battleship is struck down by another Narn missile strike and lists to port helplessly awaiting a critical explosion. that makes two Kra'Vak capital ships out of the fray with only Narn PT Boats sunk for their efforts. Victory weighs heavily for the AAF at this point in the game.
- The AAF finally lets the fighters free at the heavy Kra'Vak task force which opens up with almost half of its available blast packs and knocks down all but six fighters which make very damaging battle runs on a Kra'Vak battlecruiser. However, with so few fighters left (x5 heavy fighter and a single regular fighter), AAF fighter no longer pose a threat to the relentless Kra'Vak.
- The Kra'Vak relentlessly approach the AAF, doing little damage but closing into juicer range spectrums for their brutal railguns.
- Kra'Vak task fleets continue to rotate their vessels to the front and back of their formations which George likes to call the "Crab Battle Formation," a sort of clump of ships working cooperatively.
----------------------------------
Turn 5:
- Kra'Vak task fleets close into the second range battery of railguns making both 5s and 6s hits now.
- The Kra'Vak heavy task fleet ravages the Cold Navy (CN)destroyers that have been harrassing them so long. One CN destroyer is utterly obliterated by combined fire from two Kra'Vak battlehips and a battlecruiser while the other two CN destroyers take damage but shrug it off this turn.
- The Kra'Vak light task fleet under George does the unexpected and lays everything it has into the captured UNSF carrier doing very considerable damage.
- In return, Kra'Vak light task fleet is staggering under so many return strikes with every cruiser under Grand Admiral George's command listing in some way or trailing smoke, hull pieces or other visible signs of damage.
- The CN flag formation continues to wail on the Kra'Vak but still can't seem to land a torpedo on target. The damage is telling with a number of Kra'Vak capital ships near critical threshholds and the battle weighs in favor of the Allied Alien Fleet at this point in the game.
----------------------------------
Turn 6:
- The AAF returns fire but, by this stage, Kra'Vak vessels have closed range bands and railguns are really starting to come into their own with every strike making the AAF wince or die. The battle now seems to be turning in Kra'Vak favor.
- The captured UNSF carrier is struck down.
- All of the CN destroyers are also put to rest as the heavy Kra'Vak task fleet devotes all but one vessel's efforts to the nasty pests. ?
- The remaining Kra'Vak battleship starts pouring fire at an escorting CN cruiser of the CN flag group. Until now, the CN flag group has been ignored and particularly the CN flag ship, the DNS Musashi.
- The Narn can't run fast enough and despite many missile volleys, the Kra'Vak tactic of rotating their line's ships have spread damage out enough that only two Kra'Vak capital ships have been struck down despite so much prodigous damage having been dealt out. The Narn dreadnought comes under fire of the light and speedy Kra'Vak task fleet under Grand Admiral George, and the Narn realize that they are trapped and will be struck down before they can escape the field. Narn death yarns begun to be broadcast to the doomed crew.
- The Kra'Vak heavy task force has been severly wounded but would rather die than turn back and flee. It continues to close on the CNS flag group now that it has destroyed everything else in its path.
- The AAF fleet fighters have lost their will and can't seem to find the courage to press another attack with their primary carrier base gone.
----------------------------------
Turn 7:
- The Narn ship continues to be wailed on by the Kra'Vak light task fleet and so many of its weapon batteries have been struck down now that it can no longer return effective counterfire. The Narn have given up at this stage and their will to fight has been extinguished.
- The CN flag group realizes too late that they are now surrounded by two Kra'Vak task fleets with the Narn no longer able to protect the vulnerable CN right flank. With a very strong Kra'Vak battleship leading the heavy Kra'Vak task fleet, things look grim for the Cold Navy.
- The Kra'Vak focus their firepower onto the two escorting CN cruisers still ignoring the CN dreadnought flag ship.
- With the possibility of only taking out one or two of the crustacean enemy, the Cold Navy flag group broadcasts surrender and disappear into Crab space to an unknown fate (But probably to become the Kra'Vak equivalent of "chicken of the sea").
- Mike and Marcus begun to plot what episode five versus the Kra'Vak will bring! Revenge on the Crabs! The M's Strike Back!
----------------------------------
End Game: TOTAL KRA'VAK VICTORY!
(Joyous "clack-clacks" of Kra'Vak crab claws heard throughtout the Kra'Vak fleets! A full issue of brine grog for all!)
(Marcus and Mike muttering about those damned Kra-Vak!)
----------------------------------
Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.
|
|
? 
100 to 150 cm is 3,3 to 5 feet... 
?