Tuesday 3 April 2018

5150 Campaign – S4d – Convoy Run


Darkest Star realises the danger that Vampifan is in. He barrel rolls forward one cycle and releases a Fire and Forget missile at the X Wing which closing in on his defenceless team mate.
The X Wing dodges the missile but its proximity fuse detonates and as the warhead explodes a piece of shrapnel hits the cockpit, stunning the pilot.

Mardaddy decides to capitalise on the situation and to try to take out the stunned X Wing pilot before he gets a chance to recover. As he barrel rolls forward one cycle he releases a Fire and Forget missile. Without the ability to react, the missile slams into his opponents X Wing irrevocably corrupting its hull integrity and the ship explodes.

The remaining X Wing pilot has no velocity and is out of engagement range of any of his opponents. He stays focused and tries to power up his machine.
Tony cannot must avoid hitting Pessa and so he sideslips one cycle to starboard. He cannot however draw a bead on any of his opponents.
[Hishen movement phase]
The Radar Operator calls out to Jackie, “Sir we’ve got a lock on that possible enemy force. Turns out to be nothing.”
Jackie grunts a sign of acknowledgement. He thinks to himself “Perhaps it would have been better to deal with more of enemy now. But no matter. We’ll get them later.”
The three transport ships move forward one cycle each.
The Emden accelerates to one and two thirds cycles and moves directly forward one cycle.

The Hishen destroyer, now identified as Yorck, accelerates to one and a half cycles and advances directly towards the Star Navy fleet one cycle.
The Corellian Light Freighter in Hishen service, identified as the Millennium Falcon, accelerates to two cycles and advances directly towards the Star Navy fleet two cycles.
The Hishen patrol ship, identified as the Von der Tann accelerates to one and a half cycles and advances directly towards the Star Navy fleet one cycle.
In the continuing dogfight, the damaged X Wing, now identified as the rebel pilot Wedge, is the first to act. He accelerates his X Wing to three cycles and side slips two cycles to starboard. Firing on Mardaddy he releases eight pulse cannon rounds. It’s a deadly salvo with four rounds on target and all four punching through Mardaddy’s shields. Miraculously Mardaddy’s machine holds together as it takes hits to the Engine, Hull, Guns (which includes the fire control system for the Fire and Forget Missile) and the Comms Link.

The remaining X Wing is the next to act. He decides that Darkest Star is the more dangerous foe and attempts to pull a Yaw Reversal manoeuvre but he fails and turns to starboard and drifts forward two cycles on a collision course to Vampifan. He attempts and successfully takes an emergency manoeuvre and by passes his foe. He can’t draw a line of sight to any of his enemy and has no opportunity to shoot. He is, however, in arc to fire on Exeter with his torpedo if he isn’t destroyed.

Darkest Star curses his low attack speed. If he has learnt one thing in this engagement it is to keep his attack speed up. He sideslips one cycle to starboard and, being outside gun range, fires his last Fire and Forget missile at the X Wing. The enemy pilot throws his craft around and dodges the deadly missile.

With his ship practically combat in effective, Mardaddy moves one cycle forward as he tries to bypass Wedge.
Tony moves one cycle forward and turns his Raptor two aspects to starboard. Wedge is dead in his sights but out of gun range. He is however within Fire and Forget range and Tony deploys a missile and prays to the gods for the effectiveness of its guidance system. Wedge has faced many a Fire and Forget missile before and he evades the deadly missile.

[Hishen Activation Phase]
The X Wing pilot releases his torpedo at Exeter. Exeter’s anti-aircraft defensive battery lights up but the rounds pass harmlessly by the missile. It strikes true, smashing into her thrusters, limiting her ability to manoeuvre.

Wedge weights up his options for only a moment until he targets Exeter and releases his torpedo. The missile flies at the Star Navy frigate and again her anti-aircraft battery opens up, this time scoring a hit but the round doesn’t destroy the missile. The torpedo strikes home and the Bridge is smashed.

The Capitan of Emden decides that Exeter is relatively combat in effective and whilst Warspite is out of range of his Plasma Cannon, Ajax isn’t. He fires two Beam Cannon and two Plasma Cannon batteries at the Star Navy Destroyer.
One of the Beam Cannon and one of the Plasma cannon rounds misses. The Plasma Cannon round punches through Ajax’s light shields. The big round smashes into the ship damaging her Engine and Thrusters. The other Beam Cannon round impacts near the hull. The shields flicker and are disabled for three cycles.

[Star Navy Activation Phase]
Vampifan murmurs and awakens from his stupor and will be active next cycle.
Darkest Star is out of range.
Mardaddy, Boomer, Zabadak and Pessa have no targets.
Tony decides to chance his hand and to fire his last Fire and Forget missile at Wedge but his crafty opponent avoids the missile again.

As a collective the anti-aircraft batteries of the Star Navy fleet open fire upon the X Wings.
The four anti-aircraft batteries of Warspite are joined by the one from Exeter upon the X Wing. Twenty five high velocity rounds arc out from the Star Navy towards their foe. Eleven hit home and two punch though the X Wings shields. But she holds together with her Engine and Shields damaged.
The two anti-aircraft batteries of Ajax target Wedge. Three rounds are on target and two punch through his shields. One of the rounds sinks into his Comms Link but another strikes the cockpit. It is too much for the fighter and as it rapidly decompresses Wedge is frozen to death.

Crucially the majority of the long range firepower of the Star Navy is still available.
Jackie activates the push to talk button, “To all captains, concentrate all available firepower on Emden.”
And with that both Ajax and Warspite launch a total of three torpedoes at Emden. Whilst the range isn’t close enough for them to impact in this cycle, they most likely will next cycle.
Exeter fires her Projectile battery at her opponent. Even with her bridge smashed she is able to generate an impact near the hull of the big cruiser but the Emden’s shields hold.
Ajax fires her Beam and her Plasma batteries at Emden. The Beam battery is off target however the big Plasma round is on but it bounces off Emden’s shields.
Warspite fires her four Beam batteries at Emden. Three rounds impact near the hull, collapsing her shields for six cycles. One round is dead on target and smashes her Thrusters.


18 comments:

  1. I had a bit of a break over Easter but we're back into it now. The action is hotting up.

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  2. You're not wrong, Tim, things are certainly hotting up. I was mightily relieved that Vampifan woke up. It's still very close. I'm intrigued to see what the Millennium Falcon will do. Hopefully turn tail and run. Hey, we can all dream, can't we?

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    1. We knew you were just having an afternoon nap;-)

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    2. I knew I shouldn't have had that sixth bacon sandwich! I just needed to sleep it off! :-)

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    3. Ed's listed the Millennium Falcon as a bit of a hybrid so who knows how it'll go. It's got pretty good shields and has two AA batteries so it should be ok I think. We'll see.

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    4. Looks like you woke up just in time for the rest of the party.

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    1. Glad you're enjoying it Gary. The Old Sarge performed pretty well in the last encounter!!!

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  4. Emden is going *down* :-) ; there's no way she's going to avoid all of those torpedoes!

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    1. We hope. She has three AA batteries from memory but yeah it'll be difficult for her to see through that assault I'd suggest.

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  5. Well it looks to be swinging our way but at a big cost.

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    1. Hopefully we don't lose any more pilots and losing a capital ship would be a disaster I think.

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  6. “Perhaps it would have been better to deal with more of enemy now. But no matter. We’ll get them later.”
    WHAT?????
    Jackie is certainly an optimist - that phantom blip could have spelled disaster.
    Another great AAR Tim, real 'edge of the seat' stuff :-)

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    1. Yes when I wrote that I don't think I kinda realised how close it actually was. Glad you're liking it. It certainly soaks up the time writing it (and doesn't even give me enough time to check out others websites at the moment) but it is a hell of a lot of fun and takes my mind off work. Yay.

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  7. Hello Mr. Warrior!
    I am a fairly new lurker (found you after you posted on TMP) I am really enjoying your campaign, it has actually made me dig up my Fighter Command and Star Navy rules as well as try and convince the significant other to let me purchase some more mini's! (like that will ever happen, a man can dream). You mentioned that you were going to make a post about what rules from Carrier Command that you were using and which ones you decided against. I hope that I didn't miss that post.

    Do you recommend carrier command? I don't have it, yet, but I am liking what I am seeing in your AAR. OH, one thing I have been wondering...if the Marines (Star Army?) do arrive and make planetfall...will you be fighting it out on the Blog? Or will you just use some hand-wavium?

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    1. Hi Tiny. How are you buddy? Yeah I started to write a bit of a review but it got a bit long winded but I should revisit it perhaps with more focus on what I've been using and what I haven't. Should be relatively easy to do.

      Carrier Command. Yes I do. I don't use many of the rules in there at all but I am using the campaign rules from it which I consider to be excellent. Also they've got extra ships in it (always nice) and about 15-25 missions which are pretty good (ie a lot of missions).

      Yep I'll be fighting out the ground action using 5150 Battalion Commander. I'm just starting to get some of the infantry painted as I'm still playing through the space part of the campaign.

      I'm glad you're enjoying the game. It's been a lot of fun for me.

      Good that you've joined the party.

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  8. Hey thanks for that Simon. In the next couple of sessions you get launched into the middle of the fray!!! Yikes.

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