Labels

TJOTMS, EP 17: THE BIG GUNS NEVER TIRE

Location
KCS Mary Shelley
Deep Space, near Masuela

SITREP
All Kingdom of Colores assets escaped the planet surface and now their transports and fighters are locked in a deadly dogfight with 4th Reich interceptors to make it back to the KCS Mary Shelley. (see previous episodes: HERE and HERE)

Moments ago the RS Drache, the 4th Reich Battleship that has dogged the Shelley through Sector Six and beyond, emerged from the warp...


Sensor Tech Jones
Captain, I've updated the TacPlot, the Dragon is on a 45' intercept course..

Captain Thuries
Helm: Turn hard 90' right at them. Let's see if we can draw them away from the rendezvous point.

Dammit, I need to SEE. Tell the crew on the flying bridge, I'm leaving the CIC and will be up there momentarily


Captain Thuries
There's that ugly B****.
Helm: turn as hard as she'll go,
Weapons: fire as soon as she's in range

Sensor Tech Smith
The Dragon is launching fighters toward the transports, but altering her course toward us.



Sensor Tech Jones
Just as you thought, Captain. She's Firing!

Captain Thuries
Main Battery: Return Fire

Sensor Tech Jones
We have strikes on the Dragon, but no fires visible yet, Captain

Deck Officer Johnson
Damage report: Long range scanners are out. We lost visibility to the Transport Group.

Captain Thuries
Helm: Now bring us 180' Starboard. We'll see if we can pass behind her and rake her stern...

Helmsman Finch
Holy mother... the Dragon fired retros to slow down, she's cutting underneath... it's going to be close...

Sensor Tech Jones
I just saw one of those bastards flip me off...

Captain Thuries
Helm: Roll us out, Starboard.
Main Batteries: we should be in optimum firing position as we clear.


Hammer them!


D.O. Johnson
Hits scored! She's venting, but all guns are still hitting us right back

Captain Thuries
Helm, maintain heading, but slide out to open the range
Shields, focus every thing to port


Helmsman Finch
Oh, God, she's turning hard into us!  Here we go again, HANG ON!

Captain Thuries
Somebody get me a rock dammit. I'll break the port on their f**kin' bridge from here!

Sensor Tech Smith
Captain, I've re-established contact with the Transport Group.

Captain Thuries
Perfect!
Shields, switch full to starboard
Main Battery, keep it up

Now Helm, roll us hard to Port!

Helmsman Finch
Captain, the artificial gravity won't be able to keep up, the vertigo...

Captain Thuries
Finch, I don't give a crap if every single one of us pukes so hard we lose the meatloaf from last Friday. Roll her HARD and get us right into that sweet spot in the rendezvous zone.


Sensor Tech Jones
Jesus, Captain... look at those strikes on the Dragon

Captain Thuries
Unfortunately, it won't be enough to kill her.


Captain Thuries
Flight Ops: prepare crash recovery drill . Tell all transports and fighters, we transition as soon as they hit the deck
FO Sorenson
Yes Captain, all craft are 10 seconds or less to deck...

FO Sorenson
All craft recovered, Captain

Captain Thuries
Comms: Open a channel to the Dragon...

Nice try, but that's twice you've failed to kill us, you Nazi bastards.
We'll see you in New Texas or we'll see you in HELL.



------
Whew. I didn't think I'd have time to post that one.\

 The game was played using the "Ace of Aces" book game.

 "But Wait?" You ask incredulously, "a BOOK game? How does that even work?"

 Ah, my co-conspirators were instrumental in bringing the concept to life.

 Here's the idea...
The "Ace of Aces" game consists of 2 books. Each book is around 150 pages of pictures. Each picture is a view from "your" cockpit to the enemy plane. It shows your orientation, distance to the enemy, and his orientation.
The enemy book has a picture of the reciprocal view.
Across the bottom of each page is a list of maneuvers you can execute. You pick one and the books cross-reference your maneuver against your opponent’s maneuver and you end up on a new page with a new view.

The important part is this: while you are executing 2d maneuvers, the results are only the visible properties between the two planes.

 Simply put, the results are expressed as a line (the range) and two points (you and your opponent) with each point having an orientation relative to the other. 


So if you put this on a table... you would not need lateral movement. Just a long thin playing space to show range and the miniatures to show facing.

In other words, NOT this
But only this...

Gunnery was resolved using our system. I hope you like the results. It was a blast

Now, to put it ALL together!
Labels:

Comments

  1. Don MJune 4, 2018 at 3:39 PM

    It's finally going to happen, good luck! Should be a load of fun !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maj. GuiscardJune 5, 2018 at 7:26 AM

      Thanks Don,
      Been a long time coming

      Delete
    2. Don MJune 5, 2018 at 7:22 PM

      People on my STARGRUNT FB page are following along!

      Delete
    3. Maj. GuiscardJune 17, 2018 at 6:23 PM

      Hey Don, where is that page? I'd like to see it

      Delete
  2. commissarmoodyJune 4, 2018 at 5:02 PM

    One crasy battle, I am thinking the Shelly will need a few escort ships once they get back to Colors Space. Help tip the balance in future fights with the Reich's Dragon class battle ships.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SuberJune 4, 2018 at 5:28 PM

    Haha, you took this to another level, I love this so very much!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maj. GuiscardJune 5, 2018 at 7:29 AM

      Thanks Suber,
      So I ran a ground, then Fighter, then Captial ship game.
      This weeked, they will be all together.

      I think.... :)

      Delete
  4. airbornegrove26June 4, 2018 at 6:14 PM

    Riveting! This weekend is gonna get kah-razy

    ReplyDelete
  5. Preacher by dayJune 4, 2018 at 8:07 PM

    Sounds like lots of fun, and using Ace of Aces to run it is a very clever idea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maj. GuiscardJune 5, 2018 at 7:30 AM

      It came to me after a question about tables space from Desert Scribe of SuperGalacticDreadnought.

      It was the perfect solution.

      Delete
  6. Mr PapafakisJune 4, 2018 at 8:50 PM

    Interesting combat system Major. Sounds a little like the combat card system in Dungeon Quest, but a lot more detailed.....if you get what I mean :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maj. GuiscardJune 5, 2018 at 7:32 AM

      I don't know Dungeon Quest (but I'm sure most readers don't know Ace of Aces)

      Delete
    2. Maj. GuiscardJune 5, 2018 at 7:32 AM

      So we're even, lol

      Delete
  7. Frank O DonnellJune 5, 2018 at 2:18 AM

    Brilliant idea & execution of it Will well done you keep amazing us :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maj. GuiscardJune 5, 2018 at 7:31 AM

      Thanks Frank,
      I'm actually inspiried to keep developing the idea...

      Delete
  8. asaltorabiosoJune 5, 2018 at 6:28 AM

    nice!!!
    Really liking it!! :D

    ReplyDelete
  9. The ComposerJune 5, 2018 at 11:00 AM

    Intriguing! I like this 1D is 3D idea. Should work pretty well for any encounter involving only two primary antagonists, which . . . at that scale is likely to be more or less all of them. Will be absolutely great for the space equivalent of frigate duels. Love the way it came out. Riveting action enhanced by some great art and prose. Skillfully done, sir. Movie magic with dice!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maj. GuiscardJune 5, 2018 at 12:42 PM

      You got the concept perfectly.
      While we were organizing how we were going to play with our massive ships, we kept going back and forth about a "floor" battle, with everything on tall flight stands, or virtually motionless capital ships with fighters zipping between them on a large table.

      Nothing seemed to really fit the bill, until this idea came about. It checks a lot of boxes.
      1. The table between the ships at 4' wide wil contain a nice sized dogfight between the fighters.
      2. Grove REALLY wants to ram, and by taking the capital ship battle to an entirely different scale of movement this becomes very possible in a 6 turn game. There were two chances in the game I posted where he could have rolled fo it.
      3. It's a pretty accessible way to have a captial ship battle. It can be done on a 6x4 table and not look like a parking lot.

      At this point, you are correct, the idea is not developed enough to go beyond 2 ships (unless players accept a limitation that their ships fly in "formations". But it's early days with this idea. I think we'll have something that sings.


      Delete
    2. The ComposerJune 5, 2018 at 1:12 PM

      Valid point about formations. One of the things I most detest about your usual Sci-Fi movie is that they don't use formations and it seems pretty clear that in reality formations are essential to c and c in fixed battles. (And if you don't use them with skill you tend to lose badly.) I can see where formations might simplify things enough to allow for a book rule system as you describe.

      And yes, I believe the thing will sing . . . In Parseltongue as the Lone Star streaks across the warp anomaly cackling gleefully.

      Delete
  10. LasgunpackerJune 5, 2018 at 1:05 PM

    Thrilling! The Ace of Aces books seem like a great way to handle the duel of ships in space, where range is the primary factor (when you have turreted guns anyway). How would you handle seeking weapons like torpedoes? Treat them like the fighters?

    And Escorts would be great! Just make them comparatively narrow with lighter guns.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maj. GuiscardJune 5, 2018 at 2:37 PM

      ...and Ace of Aces has just 4 ranges, so we can describe weapons effectiveness in concrete terms.

      Torpedoes are sadly neglected thus far. I imagine they would have to act like the fighters.
      Since we adopted the convention that the fighters keep station in the tablespace between the capital ships as they twist and turn, I don't imagine evasive maneuvers would be part of the game. Simply, "the battle begins within the Torpedo engagement envelope". So, Anti-Fighter batteries, EW/Chaff (and/or shields, but we don't have those either, yet) would make up the defenses.

      Dammit, now I'm thinking again....

      Delete
    2. LasgunpackerJune 6, 2018 at 11:49 AM

      Typically, torpedoes can either be heavy seeking weapons or WWI type area denial weapons, which cause the breakup of formations (or if not then inflict heavy damage). BFG used the later concept. Either way, they force the target to maneuver in a way not related to the current position of the enemy ship, as ships attempt to move out of the engagement cone of the torpedo (the cone may in fact be a line for the simpler type) . Bombers are effectively doing the same thing, we just accept that a "bomber" is something that can be self directed once they are launched, but nothing prevents a torpedo of the first type from working the same way.

      Thinking about game stuff is both fun and dangerous... you might get new ideas.

      Delete
    3. LasgunpackerJune 6, 2018 at 11:51 AM

      And flak/Chaff/ECW/shields yes yes yes yes. Lighter ships could be armed with dual purpose guns, which are either heavy flak or light anti ship guns depending on the load. (and then you get to specialized designs like escort carriers, mostly torpedo armed ships etc)

      Delete
  11. cheetor/sho3boxJune 8, 2018 at 9:34 AM

    This weekend you guys are living the dream.

    Inspirational stuff :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maj. GuiscardJune 17, 2018 at 6:26 PM

      Grove is truly one of the "doers" and he's really helped drive this further

      Delete

Post a Comment