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Battle report, a lesson in tactics. Rocketmen tabletop.
10 years ago
My roommates Andy, Chazzy, and I, decided to play our new game, Rocketmen, which is actually a very old, out of print constructable strategy game, one which holds a special place to me since I had it when I was a kid, but had no friends then to play with.
I made army lists for each of us, we each got 5 ships, two of which started in reserve, and 60 points total, 30 of which started in reserve, they each had two cruisers and a rocket ship on the board, with two rocket ships in reserve, while I had two rocket ships and a cruiser on the board, with two more cruisers in reserve, we also had crews but their impact on the battle was minimal.
The first two turns were slow, all of us learning to love the movement measurement and referring to the rule book, while making our way to a cluster of microids in the middle of the table, and the two main asteroids, a couple turns later each of us had made a run back with our first resources of the game.
Andy and Chazzy each left a ship to defend their bases while I had all 3 of my ships collecting resources, and by the time we were making our second return runs a pattern had emerged, Andy and I were each a resource short of bringing our first ships in from reserve, and we each had the resources the other needed, so we traded, and as we did this, Andy postured to attack chazzy, he ultimately would too, but not yet,
After Andy and I had traded, I made a deal with Chazzy that would get my second reserve ship into play, while keeping her's out, and as this happened my cruisers rushed to back her up against Andy's encroaching warships, which promptly opened fire on chazzy's rocket ship which was cowering behind one of her own cruisers, the two mighty Martian warships savaged the poor rocket ship, leaving it with only a single pod left out of 5, and that's where I joined the battle.
Our rules were every pod knocked off an enemy, and every enemy ship destroyed, counted as a point, so my cruiser the Dauntless fired on Chazzy's crippled ship, and hit with 2 of it's 3 shots, destroying it and stealing Andy's 2 points, and buying a little time for my two other ships, the Phoenix and the Firefly to charge into range to help, and then thing's just went strange from there.
Andy's previously good luck with the dice deserted him, and he rolled several bad rolls in a row, thankfully, he was not alone, well, not after the first few shots, Chazzy and I both nailed the Heartsblood hard and beat it to death, it ONLY took us 4 ships beating on it to take it down though, then we rolled almost all misses against Andy's second ship in the fight, the Eradicator, a full turn, with 4 ships firing at it, we hit it once, it's return fire was equally ineffective though, only taking a pod off the Phoenix, however, this fight was now 4 on one with Chaz and I both firing on Andy's last ship in the fight, and with 4 more of our ships inbound to his one, at which point Andy, despite having a dice rolling cup, bounce a die off the table and got QUITE upset (our house rule dictates that if you use the dice cup and the die STILL hits the floor, it is an automatic minimum, or is a 0).
At this point we had to stop however, as Andy needed to go to the bank and we decided to call it done there, Andy edged out a win by points, total points being determined by resources at base, surviving ships on the table, and damage done to the enemy, though it is a point of contention that we forgot to double check the score BEFORE cleaning up the table, and I personally contend that I would have tied him for points, had I been paying more attention and double checked.
Pictures of some noteworthy points of the battle will follow. As will more reports as we play more games, I know one thing though, I wont be playing Rebel fleets anymore, not with the ATROCIOUS gunnery of my ships, particularly the Phoenix and the Dauntless in that fight.
Lord Admiral Skolvarak, 7/21/2015
I made army lists for each of us, we each got 5 ships, two of which started in reserve, and 60 points total, 30 of which started in reserve, they each had two cruisers and a rocket ship on the board, with two rocket ships in reserve, while I had two rocket ships and a cruiser on the board, with two more cruisers in reserve, we also had crews but their impact on the battle was minimal.
The first two turns were slow, all of us learning to love the movement measurement and referring to the rule book, while making our way to a cluster of microids in the middle of the table, and the two main asteroids, a couple turns later each of us had made a run back with our first resources of the game.
Andy and Chazzy each left a ship to defend their bases while I had all 3 of my ships collecting resources, and by the time we were making our second return runs a pattern had emerged, Andy and I were each a resource short of bringing our first ships in from reserve, and we each had the resources the other needed, so we traded, and as we did this, Andy postured to attack chazzy, he ultimately would too, but not yet,
After Andy and I had traded, I made a deal with Chazzy that would get my second reserve ship into play, while keeping her's out, and as this happened my cruisers rushed to back her up against Andy's encroaching warships, which promptly opened fire on chazzy's rocket ship which was cowering behind one of her own cruisers, the two mighty Martian warships savaged the poor rocket ship, leaving it with only a single pod left out of 5, and that's where I joined the battle.
Our rules were every pod knocked off an enemy, and every enemy ship destroyed, counted as a point, so my cruiser the Dauntless fired on Chazzy's crippled ship, and hit with 2 of it's 3 shots, destroying it and stealing Andy's 2 points, and buying a little time for my two other ships, the Phoenix and the Firefly to charge into range to help, and then thing's just went strange from there.
Andy's previously good luck with the dice deserted him, and he rolled several bad rolls in a row, thankfully, he was not alone, well, not after the first few shots, Chazzy and I both nailed the Heartsblood hard and beat it to death, it ONLY took us 4 ships beating on it to take it down though, then we rolled almost all misses against Andy's second ship in the fight, the Eradicator, a full turn, with 4 ships firing at it, we hit it once, it's return fire was equally ineffective though, only taking a pod off the Phoenix, however, this fight was now 4 on one with Chaz and I both firing on Andy's last ship in the fight, and with 4 more of our ships inbound to his one, at which point Andy, despite having a dice rolling cup, bounce a die off the table and got QUITE upset (our house rule dictates that if you use the dice cup and the die STILL hits the floor, it is an automatic minimum, or is a 0).
At this point we had to stop however, as Andy needed to go to the bank and we decided to call it done there, Andy edged out a win by points, total points being determined by resources at base, surviving ships on the table, and damage done to the enemy, though it is a point of contention that we forgot to double check the score BEFORE cleaning up the table, and I personally contend that I would have tied him for points, had I been paying more attention and double checked.
Pictures of some noteworthy points of the battle will follow. As will more reports as we play more games, I know one thing though, I wont be playing Rebel fleets anymore, not with the ATROCIOUS gunnery of my ships, particularly the Phoenix and the Dauntless in that fight.
Lord Admiral Skolvarak, 7/21/2015
