HALO at Kobold-Con

[Dakkar]

Greg or anyone in CO:
Would you be interested in a HALO Fleet Battles event at KoboldCon, April 26th-28th?
If so, which day/time would be better? Sunday AM-PM? Fri night? Or must it be Saturday?

[Landlubber]

You sure they’d allow a dead game at the con? I mean I know other cons do (BFG at Adepticon, for instance) but Halo Fleet Battles never had a huge following...

[Dakkar]

You sure they’d allow a dead game at the con? I mean I know other cons do (BFG at Adepticon, for instance) but Halo Fleet Battles never had a huge following...

They have a dearth of events right now, and plenty of tables, esp on off hours. If we can assure 4 people or more, I'll run it just for a chance to play. :-)

[Landlubber]

I talked to Rob about it tonight at the Haven. I think I'm in. I have an idea for a scenario too that would probably accomodate 2-3 players on each side...

Spartan released a "Firefight" scenario for Fleet Battles about a year before they went under. It involves two capital ships in the center of the board engaging each other, while other supporting battlegroups roll for random deployment edges along the edge of table.

What I would like to do is have a UNSC Punic and a Covenant CAS duking it out in the middle of the table, and assign deployment zones and missions to the other battlegroups instead of having them role for random deployment. In my idea, each player controlling a battlegroup would get a sheet of instructions on where to deploy (diagram of the battlefield), which turn they deploy on, and what their battlegroup(s) mission is. For example, one UNSC battlegroup might be carrying a LOT of boarding craft and a few Spartans, and their mission would be to close with the CAS and conduct a boarding assault. One Covenant battlegroup would be made up of CPV-class destroyers, and their job would be to deny a specific sector of the battlefield to enemy battlegroups. Some battlegroups would deploy on a specific board edge, some would come out of slipspace in their assigned sector (or would try to...we could add in the Firestorm Armada randomization roll...)

I could field all the ships for this scenario on both sides EXCEPT the Covenant CAS. I've pinged Quickdraw to see if he could loan me his.

Thoughts?

[Dakkar]

The CAS and the Punic are the big dogs, right? That sounds pretty cool/awesome!

What day/time would you prefer for it? Sat AM through dinner is busiest time but also most likely to have folks in other events like 40K. Sat after 7, Sun, and Fri are the bigger open spots.

[Landlubber]

Yes, the CAS and Punic are the only two massive class ships for the game. I have a Punic, and Quickdraw has a CAS.

Quickdraw said he could actually attend on the 27th (Saturday), so that would be at least three players (you, me, and him) and even more miniatures (I have probably 3000 points of Covenant and he has at least that if not more...and I have over 4000 points of UNSC). The con's website is only showing three miniatures games registered so far, and Rob gave me the impression that there is plenty of room left for both miniatures and boardgames, so I think doing it on Saturday probably wouldn't be a problem.

If I'm going to go, I'll probably run a few more games as well so I can get free registration. Was thinking about setting up a BSG minis game (probably also on Saturday but maybe Sunday) and running a custom Firefly boardgame scenario (I have an idea for a 'race around the 'Verse' scenario), and maybe even a game or two of Ascendancy.

[Quickdraw]

What I would like to do is have a UNSC Punic and a Covenant CAS duking it out in the middle of the table, and assign deployment zones and missions to the other battlegroups instead of having them role for random deployment. In my idea, each player controlling a battlegroup would get a sheet of instructions on where to deploy (diagram of the battlefield), which turn they deploy on, and what their battlegroup(s) mission is. For example, one UNSC battlegroup might be carrying a LOT of boarding craft and a few Spartans, and their mission would be to close with the CAS and conduct a boarding assault. One Covenant battlegroup would be made up of CPV-class destroyers, and their job would be to deny a specific sector of the battlefield to enemy battlegroups. Some battlegroups would deploy on a specific board edge, some would come out of slipspace in their assigned sector (or would try to...we could add in the Firestorm Armada randomization roll...)

This is a good idea and a good way to play it as a multiplayer game. I think I still have the list of “operating orders” for incoming battle groups, I will locate it. I remember them being randomly assigned upon entry, but it’s a smart idea to designate orders for specific battle groups in this case.
Why don’t you and I virtually sit down and talk through our collections to prebuild some balanced battle groups ahead of time. Then day of all we have to worry about is how many people we have playing.

[Landlubber]

Good idea. Ok, I’ll see about registering the game this weekend. I’ll go with Saturday the 27th as that’s best for you, QuickDraw, and we’ll need your ships. I’ll advertise it as a 6-player game... I think that would work. If we have 6 players then each person might have a couple battlegroups.


Dale, thoughts?

[Dakkar]

If its to be Saturday, I recommend Sat evening 7PM onwards.
I can guarantee my participation if there, maybe even if earlier.

If you're willing to submit and coordinate the event, please have at it :-) Frees me up on other planning. And heck, I might want to do your other event ideas like Firefly - just let me know when they are.

The overall scenario outline seems sound, and I like Quickdraw's thoughts on ensuring a balanced scenario. In the past, it always seems like the Covenant has an edge, so you'd want to redress that.

[Landlubber]

7 is a little late. Could we do a 6 start time?

Also, when would you be free for Firefly? Should I try to run it earlier on Saturday?

[Dakkar]

7 is a little late. Could we do a 6 start time?

6 can work - might overlap with minis events, but folks not winning would likely drop early to play HALO if they wanted. :-)

Also, when would you be free for Firefly? Should I try to run it earlier on Saturday?

I'm sorely tempted to say the heck with 40K or whatever and plan Firefly during the day. Say Firefly 9-1; Trek Ascendancy 1-5; HALO 6-10; and then you show me BSG? ;-)

[Landlubber]

I could probably do that. I didn’t see anything on the site about times for the 40k event.

I might run an official BSG event on Friday afternoon/evening (official as in it’s on the schedule and you can register for it, not as in an official Ares Games event). Planning to be there probably from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning, will just get a hotel room. Maybe BSG Friday afternoon/evening, Firefly Saturday morning, Ascendancy in the afternoon, Halo in the evening. If you can’t make the BSG game on Friday I’d be happy to show you after Halo, but I’d probably need a lift back to my hotel room after that (wife will be there with me but she’ll probably be asleep when we wrap up Halo).

QuickDraw, can you support a 6pm start for Halo?

[Dakkar]

Cool, I'll plan for BSG on Friday.

And I'll set up an Ascendancy event for Sat at 1PM

[Landlubber]

I just submitted an Ascendancy event for Saturday at 1pm....thought I would run it! What time works for you for BSG on Friday?

Also, I’ve submitted the Halo event for Saturday at 6. Both events are pending review.

[Dakkar]

What time works for you for BSG on Friday?

Anytime after 3 works for Friday.

And you're still doing FIREFLY at 9AM Saturday, right?

Thanks for running all these - it's rapidly filling up my dance card :-)