This is the first full play test of the Desperate Encounters rule set (available at my website in the downloads section), based off the WOTC Starship Battles rules.
My friend Brian and I played an 800 point battle. Capital Ships, such as Imperial Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari Cruisers run between 220 and 300 points, generally.
Brian had a MC80 Cruiser, MC90 Cruiser, Corellian Corvette, Nebulon B Frigate, Quasar Fire Carrier, GR75 Transport, and a Skipray Blastboat. His fighter pool consisted of B-Wing Assault Fighters, Y-Wings, and an A-Wing. Brian chose to use primarily slow, heavily armed anti-fighter starfighters.
My fleet consisted of an Imperial Star Destroyer Mk II, an Immobolizer 418 Interdictor, Victory II Star Destroyer, a Carrack Cruiser, Strike Cruiser, Assassin Corvette, Lambda Shuttle, Sentinel Landing Craft, and a Skipray Blastboat. My fighter pool included A-9 Vigilance, Preybirds, a TIE L/n, Scimitar Bombers, a TIE Bomber, and TIE Interceptor Mk I and IIs. I wanted more interceptors and superiority fighters, with a couple of bombers.
I didn’t originally plan to do a battle report, so no pictures this time, sorry. The first three turns, initiative for players was found by rolling a D20. Ships moved in order of D20+ their acceleration value. After the third turn, we used a D10 instead, adding acceleration values of the ships. This worked out better and allowed for varied movement instead of one player, then the other. We may try using a D6 next time.
We played on a 4’x4’ 1” square grid mat.
Turn 1 and 2:
No combat. All ships were out of weapons range. I tried to time it so that I could possibly have initiative by the time we entered combat range, but failed.
Turn 3:
The Rebels got the initiative easily and I had to move all my ships first and suffer through being shot at by every rebel ship before I could respond. The Rebels took out four starfighters and the Sentinel Lander.
The Imperials were able to take out the Rebel Skipray and do slight damage to the Corellian Corvette. The Imperial Star Destroyer hammered the MC80 cruiser, doing significant hull damage and doing system damage to the engines and weapons, hurting top speed and damage.
Turn 4:
The Imperials won the initiative and the MC80 cruiser was able to repair it’s weapons.
The Imperials took out 2 B-Wings, the Corellian Corvette, 3 Y-Wings, and slaughtered the Quasar Fire so bad that the only person who escaped was a janitor who happened to be cleaning the escape pod’s toilet at the time. Despite the Imperial Star Destroyer missing the MC80 with it’s broadside attack, the MC80 again took significant damage and was flipped to the reduced side of the stat card.
The Rebels took out two TIE Interceptor Mk IIs and hurt the Victory II Star Destroyer with two Critical Hits (Turbolasers and Proton Torpedoes) from the MC90. The Victory suffered a weakened hull (Torp attacks do more damage), and impaired sensors (reduced attack bonus).
Turn 5:
This was the deciding turn of the battle. The Imperials caught the Rebels flat footed with a bad initiative roll, and the Rebels had to move all their ships first, and then watch all of their ships get hit before being able to return fire.
The Imperial Star Destroyer took out the MC80 with a critical turbolaser hit. The Nebulon B Frigate attempted to ram the Imperial Star Destroyer in responds, but the Star Destroyer was able to turn into it and ram the Nebulon B Frigate instead. The Nebulon B Frigate took enough damage to be destroyed six times over and the Star Destroyer’s shields held. The Victory Star Destroyer, seeing that this side of the battlefield was not in a strong position moved in close to the MC90 in an attempt to ram it. The MC90 was able to maneuver away and take a glancing blow, suffering only shield damage. The MC90’s shields held, but the Victory was severely damaged, with the hull, engines, and bridge systems damaged.
A Scimitar Bomber hit the GR75 with a critical proton torpedo strike, making a one shot kill. Follow up attacks on the MC90 caused massive damage. The Imperials also managed to take out a Y-Wing and A-Wing.
The Rebels were able to finish off the Victory Star Destroyer with a critical hit from the Proton Torpedoes.
With the MC80 gone, and the MC90 severely wounded, the Rebels had no chance at pulling out a Victory. Besides the MC90, the rebels had one Y-Wing left.
Turn 6:
The Rebels one the initiative by one. The Imperials surrounded the MC90 with starfighters as all the other ships moved in.
The Rebels took out a Scimitar Bomber, however another Scimitar scored a critical hit on the MC90 with Proton Torpedoes. In addition to the damage all the other fighters had done, a critical hit from the Strike Cruiser was enough to finish off the MC90. A well placed shot from the Carrack was able to destroy the Y-Wing, ending the battle.
We do have concerns that the Imperials may be under-costed, but only some more games will tell. This was a solid imperial victory, with the loss of only one major warship and a few minor losses. The Imperial Star Destroyer was unscatched, though it overmatched the MC80 it fought with.
In addition to changing how initiative is determined, we also we only made some minor changes. All in all, this was a very positive, very smooth play test. We both had a blast. Hopefully we can get a game or two in over the next couple weeks.
Brian had an interesting idea for initiative that we may try. Both players would use a D6. If the difference was 2, then the winning player would get to fire two ships before normal initiative firing would commence. So the winning player would fire with three ships, then the loser, then the winner again. We may try this next game.
