Friday 2 March 2018

5150 Campaign – S2g – Reconnaissance Mission



Colgar6 bites down hard on his lip as he barrel rolls and drifts his ship three cycles to starboard, bringing him to a perfect firing position on Skywalker. He pulls the Rail Gun trigger sending 15 high velocity rounds at his opponent as he thumbs the missile release sending a deadly Fire and Forget projectile as well.
Two of the rounds are on target and one punches through Skywalkers shield smashing into the X Wing’s Engine. Walker throws his ship to the left and right to avoid the missile. The ship is moves off its course and loses its attack vector but he avoids the worse of the impact as the proximity detonator goes off. A near miss but none the less shrapnel blasts through the fighters canopy wounding the pilot. Skywalker is knocked unconscious. His ship slide slips 5 cycles to starboard as it drifts away.  

Unfortunately Colgar6’s attack has brought him In Sight of the remaining X Wing. The viscous pilot pulls his stick to the left and then the right, barrel rolling into a firing position on the Viper pilot. Jerking trigger the fires eight Pulse Cannon rounds at Colgar6. Two are on target and both pass through Colgar’s shields. One round smashes his Engine, reducing his velocity to 3 cycles and the other damages his Comms Link.

Apollo calmly announces over the radio, “Da Gobbo stay on me. We’re going in.”
Both ships side slip two cycles to starboard followed by two cycles forward, brining X Wings In Sight and dogfighting range.

“Hold on Colgar” Da Gobbo shouts over the radio as he barrel rolls his fighter forward two cycles and then he side slips to the right and left to rub off speed. As he moves in for the kill he notices that Colgar6’s comms array is damage. He releases 15 Rail Gun runs but holds back on firing a missile. Two of the Rail Gun rounds are on target but both are stopped by the X Wings Shields.

The X Wing pilot reacts, firing 8 Pulse Cannon rounds at Da Gobbo. One is on target and penetrates Da Gobbo’s shields. The round slams deep into the Viper disabling its shields.

Cooly Apollo moves forward 3 cycles and then side slips 1 cycle to port. He is in no danger of hitting Colgar and at point blank range he activates both triggers firing 15 Rail Gun rounds and a Fire and Forget missile at the rebel. One of the Rail Gun rounds is on target and penetrates the X Wings shields, damaging its Comms Link. With no time to react, the X Wing pilot cannot evade the Fire and Forget missile. It slams into his ship damaging its Engine and Shields. Unbelievably the air frame of the stricken ship holds together as its velocity slows to 3 cycles from the damaged engine.

Old Sarge opens up the throttle and pushes his Viper to 4 cycles. Unfortunately it isn’t fast enough for him to get In Sight of any opposition. He moves forward 4 cycles and turns one aspect to port.
With his engine damaged the Addict’s maximum velocity is 3 cycles. He moves forward 3 cycles and turns 1 aspect to starboard to try to get a better angle of attack for his missiles, should any of the opposition come into range.
Apollo surveys the battlefield. “This dogfight isn’t over yet,” he thinks to himself.

15 comments:

  1. Another terrific slice of the action Tim, and can I just say how well your annotations on the photo's are working - the added graphics for firing and damage, and the colours and font showing movement and status really help keep track of what's going on :-)

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  2. Ditto what The Addict said, without the notes on the photos it would be really difficult to follow.
    Another exciting post as the fight continues, waiting to see what happens as the big ships close.

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  3. Thanks guys. I basically take the raw photo and do a few colour corrections on them (the camera is picking up the black strangely at the moment) then I just put it into power point and add all the general graphics like the notations and the explosions etc. Save it as a PNG or a JPEG and then back to photoshop for a final Crop to get rid of all the irrelevant stuff. It all takes a little bit of time but it's well and truly worth it and I'm getting a lot quicker with it.

    I don't use any counters (obviously as you can't see them in the pictures) or take any notes etc because I just write it up as I go. Hence when you see a post it is usually what I just played either that night after work or what I've managed to fit in just before I go to work.

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  4. I can only echo the comments made by Greg and John. As a graphic designer myself, I know the importance of good graphics, and you, Tim, have got it perfect with these batreps. The method you're using is pretty much exactly what I'd do. Well done!

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    1. Thanks Bryan. I read back through them the other day whilst I was waiting for a plane and yeah they are pretty easy to follow, which is great.

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  5. There are quite a few crippled fighters around now. I imagine that some of them will not last very long!

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    1. If you take two hits to the same place then the fighter blows up.

      So it's pretty high stakes at the moment.

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  6. Lots of damaged craft about now. Finale is going to be very soon!

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    1. Stuffs going to go boom real quick from here on in.

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  7. Reece...best conducted with light, expendable troops first. Your game is proving why fleets need layers of defence for capitol ships.....fighters, missiles, defensive short range batteries, anti fighter destroyers or escorts....all wrapped around the main ships of the flotilla.

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  8. Yes I'm learning that the hard way aren't I.

    Hey thanks for the tip on the Sandy Woodward book 100 Days. It turned up in the mail some time last week and I started reading it on the weekend. Really enjoying it.

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  9. Glad you're enjoying the book!

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    1. You bugger. That book is great. It's effecting my wargaming as I can't put it down. I've knocked through 270 of the 340 odd pages in 5 days. Damn very difficult to put down.

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    2. Nearly there then....and then you can get back to the action, we're all on tenterhooks!

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  10. All in all a pretty intense and great fight. Impressive for a first go.

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