War Fleets BatRep: Federation vs Space Battleship Yamato

Another solo wargame battle report today, and this time I'm going into the darkest reaches of space in search of a "spiritual follow up" for A Call to Arms that we played to high heaven and back with the Far Side a decade ago.

The rules used are something Andy found on the internet, a free 2 pageside system called War Fleets (edition 2.2).

I went for equal forces, in that the Federation intercepts a massive vessel from Space Battleship Yamato (some old model kit I build years ago, without some fins etc that where sourced back then into terrain), and I try and build the vessels to represent "what they could do".

Both Federation vessels are destroyer class at 60 points each, and equipped with three components each.  Obviously, that means a Warp Drive and Torpedoes for each, but the Vesper class gets Shields compared to Armored Plating for the NX class.  The admiral is on the Vesper class.

For the Yamato universe vessel, whom I dubbed Murusame for no reason except it sounds cool, the Battleship of 120 points was selected.  For it's six components I went for Cannon, Giga Cannon, Rail Cannon, Barracks, Reinforced Ram and finally a Tsunami Gun.

That megaweapon will fire on a predetermined point in the game, aka either on turn 4 (I plan to play 4 turns for this try-out), OR the moment the vessel goes down to it's final 2 hit points (aka last component, which will be this weapon obviously).

 I needed to think out a sort of 'AI' for the Murusame, and it will behave according to this simple flow chart:
1. Target the closest vessel to it
2. If both are equal, target the most heavily damaged.
3. If that is also equal, target the NX class

This has all to do with the morale rules so I can try those out if needed.  Should the admiral fall, you autobreak, but otherwise if you go to 50 or below, you take morale tests to see if you stay in the game.   This would allow the Vesper class a chance to remain in battle should the NX be swiftly dispatched off.

Note: I did forget the changing "goes first" rules in the rulesets during this test, as while the Federation got the first turn, the Murusame would have been going first in turns 2 to 4.  However, this would have resulted in a single extra Giga Cannon shot, and at best an extra damage (and knocking out the NX class one component) would have been done then.

The Battle

The fleets deployed each near an asteroid field, the Federation putting the NX a bit closer then the Vesper class.

Turn 1

The NX class moves forward but misses with it's torpedoes, as does the Vesper class.  Murusame moves down the centre, guns blazing, and both it's Cannon (ACC bonus of 4 goes a long way) and Railgun strike home on the NX, knocking 2 points of the Armour Plating.

Turn 2

While the NX engages, the Vesper class tries to flank the Murusame with the help of it's Warp Drive for an additional 9" of movement.  However, Federation fire remains ineffective, either missing the target or failing to damage the big battleship.
Murusame retaliates by closing the gap to the NX further and knocking out it's complete Armour Plating.

Turn 3

As the NX passes by the Murusame, it's torpedoes strike home doing a point of damage to the Barracks, before warping out of range of it's Giga Cannon.  The Vesper tries to move to take cover of the asteroids, but fails again to hit home, as Murusame pivots and damages the NX's torpedo module.

Turn 4

The NX class strikes true again, taking down the Barracks component of the battleship, before trying to hide behind the asteroid field but not making it.  The Vesper class moves in to shield her but once again misses.  Not a single shot of the vessel had stricken home, and now she faced the charged Tsunami Gun.  Locking on to the Vesper now, the Murusame blazes with all it's in range weapons, knocking out the Shield Rig and damaging the Torpedoes on the Vesper class.  Though with the 1 point of damage rule, one can perhaps better fire the Tsunami Gun every other turn against destroyer class vessels...

And so the battle reached it's time limit, and the Federation had to return to their Starbase blood nosed, and having to report they couldn`t stop the big, strange vessel they encountered in the sector...


The Conclusion

I must say I`m still in doubt on these rules.  Granted, I played below the 300pts size and build vessels 'in character' but this means it was hard to damage the opponent on 4 turns.  Though should I played one turn more, I think the Federation would crumble.
Hitting seems to be the hardest, so weapons with an ACC bonus are the way to go.  On a full game, taking fighters and destroyers with only Cannon modules and nothing else give me the feel that this is "the way to go" to do serious damage,  but that seems a pity for all the other characterful components in the rules, though I will probably revisit the rules in the future with 300pts and smaller vessels to check this out, though I will still build them in flavor of whatever models I`ll be using then.  Depends what I print up mostly I guess.
But for a "meta universe crossover" style game, I think it might be a tat to simple to play, it's great as the (intended) Beer & Pretzels game, but to use it for, let's say, the space component of a space / land campaign, I fear that one rulesgamer might dislodge the balance so hard the game breaks.

It wasn`t bad in the end, but I guess it's fine for just what it is supposed to be: a quick game to play on an evening for sheer laughs.