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Past sunday saw a long awaited moment in our club's, the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp, history!
The return, after almost 20 years, of the "Far Side of the Galaxy"!
This was a nickname our gaming clique had when we played almost 3 years of spaceship games in the farthest corner of the clubhouse, and now we decided (or at least, the remainders of the people of that time) to bring those fleets out of the motballs and travel the spacelanes with a battleday, using the One Page Rules Warfleets ruleset.
The reason for this was simple, that way fleets of all sorts could be taken, wether it was Babylon 5 (the game we played for years), Star Wars Armada, Battlefleet Gothic or a heap of other stuff. I wrote up a pack of 5 linked scenario's (we played 4, more on that later) to form a story, paired everyone with opponents for the whole day, and off we went. The event was attended by 9 players, and here is a little clip of the participating fleets, I'll put a section at the end of the video with all the vessels on display.
Terrain was made from scratchbuilds (see my earlier CD terrain thing for example), including nebula's with coulourchanging tealights, and apart from a "real" spacemat from Deep Cut, we bought some cheap tablecloths with starprint from Temu for the event, whom where about 4 euro a piece.
And with everything set up, it was time to get the FTL drives fires up, and warp to the system to seek out just what happened there. Me and my co-organiser Andy would alternate as the "reserve player" as we where as mentioned above with 9 people, so that meant 4 games would be run per scenario.
The story
On stardate -296645.4337899543 the ruling body lost contact with a very important freighter. On this vessel, covert tests where made with a highly unstable and experimental energy type, which can be of great use for both civilian and military goals should they manage to control it.
The dangers where all around though, not only due to the fact of a catastrophic failure. Other factions might develop an unhealthy intrest in the project, and try to obtain your research.
Your command has been dispatched to check if everything is still in order. Your small task force plots a course to the small starsystem Al-Qadim 17b, which houses a dwarf star called Athas, and the M-class planet only known on the charts as Djoef.
Good luck admiral, and bring back our secrets, no matter the cost!
So that is the setting for the narrative storyline of today, so let's have a look at the fleets that participated in the battleday.
Both Andy and Mike brought along a fleet of Battle Brothers (represented respectively by Babylon 5 ISA models and Full thrust Israeli models). Myself and Ignace had a fleet of the Human Defence Force (respectively Babylon 5 Earth Alliance and Battlefleet Gothic Imperials). The Robot Legion had also sent forth two fleets, commanded by Patrick (using Firestorm Armada models) and David (using Battlefleet Valkyrie models). Ian had brought an overal generic list (using Star Wars Armada figures), Timothy brought the High Elf fleet (Battlefleet Gothic Eldar) and Sven brought a fleet of Ork Marauders (totally scratchbuild).
Let the dicerolling begin!
Scenario 1: First Contact is Made
Arriving at the system, the long range scans are detecting strange signals. Analyses quickly learns that it involves another fleet, and the call to arms alarm is raised. These surely can't be here by accident, so confrontation is unavoidable!
The first of the scenario's I wrote was a pretty basic affair, so everyone could have a hang of the rules. The only 'twist' was in the deployment, as vessels kept warping in to reinforce their side. Light vessels and squadrons deployed de facto. In turn 1, Medium vessels could appear on 3+, 2+ in turn 2 and automatically in turn 3. Heavy vessels could appear in turn 2 on a 6+, a 4+ in turn 3 and automatically in turn 4. The game would last a maximum of 8 turns, and points would be scored for destroyed enemy vessels.
After a round of jumping in and guns blazing, the games ended with the following results:
Andy defeated Mike with 300 - 290 in a Battle Brothers grudge match
The Robot Legion of David lost 60 to 80 against the High Elves of Timothy
Ignace's Human Defence Force overpowered the Ork Marauders of Sven with 160-90
Patrick's Robot Legion brought down Ian's Generic fleet with 130-90
Scenario 2: The Derelict
So you aren't alone in the system, and that explains why contact might have been lost with the research vessel. When you reach the coordinates, this proves to be the case as no life signs are detected and the vessel is heavily damaged. This requires further investigation, but you are not alone...
The second scenario placed a derelict vessel in the center that the forces needed to try and scanm which could be done by either Light vessels on a 5+, mediums on a 4+ of heavies on a 3+ if they would be within 6" of the stem by the end of the turn. If a vessel had been fired upon and hit, it would have a -1 penalty to scanning as the crew was occupied otherwise. Squadrons can't scan as they lack dedicated sensor suites for this. The scenario lasts 6 turns, and the player with the most scanning points at the end would be the winner.
I was outscanned with my Human Defence Force by the High Elves of Timothy with 5-6
David's Robot Legion sensors proved more effective then Sven's cobbled together arrays with 3-2
A lone blip by Ian's Generic fleet proved to much for the Human Defence Force of Ignace with 1-0
Patrck's Robot Legion didn't bring enough science equipment compared to Mike's Battle Brothers and it ended in 3-5.
Scenario 3: The Belt
The scans have shown that the research has been transferred to the planet Djoef, the M-class planet in the habitable zone of the system. However, to reach this, the dangerous area known only as The Belt has to be passed. Welcome to the death race!
This scenario was made to add some light hearted fun. After the first 24" of the map, a 12" wide asteroid belt was formed. For every inch a vessel travelled through this, it would get 1 damage on a 5+, 6+ for light vessels and squadrons. But to add some more to it, players deployed NEXT to each other, so they could either go full speed through the belt, or try to hang back and disable enough vessels of the opponent to get there. The game lasts 8 turns, and points are scored for the value of each of your ships that got of the other side of the table.
And while some adopted a totally crazy all speed ahead and risk the full 12 dice at once, some preferred to engage the enemy to delay them and sneak some small vessels off in the meantime.
Andy's Battle Brothers where defeated by Ian's Generic fleet by 100 to 200
David's Robot Legion kept bumping into the rocks as Mike's Ballte Brothers took a 0 - 120 win
Ignace and his Human Defence Force was outsped by Timothy's High Elves for a 0 - 90 result
Patrick's Robot Legions blinked succesfully, outspeeding Sven's Ork Marauders 150 - 120
And that brought us to the final scenario. Now originally, a fifth would be held being either a straight up simple battle, or a multiplayer with smaller fleets. But as we all took sheer time to play our games and didn't want to put on a pressuring timetable, we decided to drop that final one, and would round out the day after the following round. Which was de facto the "finale" scenario anyways.
Scenario 4: The Anomaly
The fleet has reached Djoef... only to find that the planet is no longer there! In it's place, a raging energy storm... it seems a cataclysmic accident occured during the research! Eliminate the enemy, to prevent the events that transpired to leak to the universe, and be able to cover it all up. But make sure you don't get caught in the pull of the anomaly!
In the center of the table is a raging energy anomaly, with a gravity field of 12" from it's exact center. Vessels enering this zone, will be pulled towards it. They will be pivoted 45 degrees towards it with the closest facing, and pulled 6" towards it's center. The moment a vessel touches the anomaly, it is immediatly destroyed! The scenario lasts for 6 turns, and points will be scored in 3 ways: full poits for every enemy vessel destroyed, half points for every enemy vessel damaged and half points for everyone of your vessels that survives.
And some indeed ended up in the energy storm...
At the end of the round, the following results where noted down in the dataslates:
My Humand Defence Fleet defeated the Ork Marauders with 405 - 90
David's Robot Legion took down Ian's Generic fleet with 400 - 160
Ignace's Human Defence Force took down Mike's Battle Brothers but I forgot to note the score
And finally Patrick's Robot Legion was overpowered by the High Elves fleet of Timothy by 105 - 375
And so the story of the Djoef Research Project came to an end. After 8 hours of playing games, the crowd seemed pleased. It was a simple yet fun enough gamesystem, it allowed for old models to be brought out and played again, and no-one went home with a headache as can be the case after playing tournaments or complicated rulesets for 8 hours.
The general conscencus: yes, I wil, organise a second edition around this time next year again. But there is more, the charm of One Page Rules has been discovered, and we will be looking at some other systems of theirs to organise some more of these scenario driven battledays at the clubhouse, both for Fantasy and Sci-fi games. But rest assured, under all that, the fire has been lit again, and expect to see some more spaceship games played at the club in the coming months!
I would say... mission succesfully accomplished!
