Quickdraw and I met at Collectormania today planning to work through the last four scenarios in the Fall of Reach campaign book, but we were only able to get through scenario 7.
We got a little deeper into the game mechanics in this go-around, and got to see how terrain, wings, and boarding actions work. We also got to see the big ships in action: the Covenant's ORS heavy cruiser, and the UNSC's
Epoch-class heavy carrier:
The UNSC took all three scenarios. Suffice it to say that long-range MAC fire is incredibly brutal; in two of the three scenarios, Quickdraw killed at least one of my CCS battlecruisers before the first round was over, in a single long-range MAC volley. But more on that later.
Scenario 5 required the UNSC to get past the Covenant ships and escape off the Covenant's deployment edge.
Long-range MAC fire killed my CCS in turn one.
It all went downhill from there. The second CCS died in turn two. My SDV heavy corvettes were able to finally kill one element of
Paris-class frigates at the end of turn three, before they went down in a hail of UNSC missiles.
Scenario 6 introduced the two large ships; the scenario involved us attempting to kill each other's flagships.
This was the only scenario where the Covenant was really able to hang with the UNSC, and it came down to terrain. I was able to shield my ORS heavy carrier's battlegroup behind a small asteroid field, protecting it from the withering MAC fire of an approaching UNSC battlegroup.
Between the range, the cloaking fields on the ORS and the SDV corvettes, and the UNSC firing solution having to go through the asteroid field, Quickdraw was unable to fire (if enough negative modifiers apply to a firing solution, it drops too low on the Firepower Rating table to be viable; the player is not allowed to roll). I had initiative and was able to move behind the asteroid field before the UNSC battlegroup activated, and was able to hold position until after that battlegroup activated in the next turn, thereby able to continue to shelter behind the asteroids as the UNSC got into optimum range for my plasma weapons.
Meanwhile, my lone CCS battlecruiser was out in the open and suffered the rage of the UNSC's battlegroup commander; it was killed in turn one.
And the
Epoch drew closer...
This scenario also saw the bomber wings start to come into play.
The scenario came down to the ORS and
Epoch dukeing it out at close range.
After trading a few salvos, the ORS went down to a missile barrage from the
Epoch's battlegroup.
Scenario 7 wasn't completed due to time constraints, but it was going really well for the UNSC when we had to call it.
So, a few observations from today:
-while the Covenant are murderous at close range, the UNSC are their equal--or maybe their better--at long range. I've found it very difficult thus far to get close enough to the UNSC to do serious damage. The CCS battlecruisers cannot withstand more than two salvos of long-range MAC fire; once they're gone, the lone SDV element left in the battlegroup is too weak to do much damage on it's own. Now, we're playing with the required battlegroups for the scenarios, so I might be able to build a battlegroup to deal with this issue when we start playing open games.
-it is very easy for the Covenant player to get initiative. Rho Barutamee is able to re-roll the initiative die once every turn, and the number of command icons on the order dice are added to whatever is rolled on that die. I think I had initiative in 75% of the turns we played today. This allowed me to keep my bombers alive a little longer, and I was able to manipulate movement--such as maintaining shelter behind the asteroids until the opportune moment to strike.
-bombers can avoid interceptors by engaging targets. If they can get into contact with their target, they can't be attacked by interceptors. So if a bomber group kills it's target and that player can get initiative in the next turn, the bombers can possibly get to another target before they get caught by the interceptors. (Wings move and conduct attacks before the battlegroups).
-the orders that each commander is able to issue are key. We both had ships live or die because of those orders. It's a very interesting mechanic that I think is a great addition to the game, and I wouldn't mind seeing it adapted to Firestorm Armada or Dystopian Wars (or even Planetfall). Hopefully they'll keep the same mechanic in the ground game.
-terrain is a big deal in this game, much more so than in Firestorm. Quickdraw hid his frigates for at least one turn in scenario 7 a gas cloud, which made them almost impossible to hit.
A few more pics from today:
Kudos to Quickdraw for his victories, and for fielding such a well-painted fleet.
Thanks for reading!
