5150: Fleet Commander AAR

Ed the THW Guy was kind enough to send me a copy of the newest game in his sci-fi universe, 5150: Fleet Commander. This game is at a little higher level of abstraction than the rules that I co-wrote with him, 5150: Star Navy, so I decided to run a largish fleet battle. With just four stats per ship (and only one stat that changes), it was easy to get a number of ships on the board.

My Star Navy had a capital ship squadron (Dreadnought and two Carriers) and two escort squads (Light Cruiser and two Destroyers, and Destroyer and two Frigates). The Hishen had their own capital squad (Planetary Conquest Ship and a pair of Motherships) and a couple of escort groups (each with a Slaver and two Patrollers).

The two sides launched fighters and missiles, and opened fire (all taken care of with one combat roll per ship). The Star Navy damaged one of the carriers on the first volley, but lost one of its frigates as the Hishen retaliated.

Other human vessels also took damage (meaning they could not return fire during the Hishen turn or initiate fire on their next turn).

With each vessel targeting its equivalent on the other side, the big ships were not doing much damage to each other. The smaller craft, on the other hand, quickly eliminated one another. Most of the smaller ships, however, made their rolls to remain in the battle, with just one human ship, the light cruiser, fleeing the battle after taking damage. All the rest stayed until they were destroyed.

Still, even after losing ships, neither side's commander wanted to leave the battle. C-beams glittered as the two fleets continued to exchange fire, with more escorts evaporating each turn. The large vessels, however, were hard to damage--and they could all take a lot of it.

Finally, the Star Navy carrier attacks got through to their opposite numbers. First one Hishen mothership erupted, then the other one turned into a rapidly expanding debris cloud.

With most of their fleet gone, the Hishen commander still refused to flee, and the Star Navy's ships were able to concentrate most of their firepower on the alien flagship. Only a few shots got through to do damage, but they were enough to send the planetary conquest ship into damage control mode--meaning its crew was too busy to shoot at the Star Navy.

Finally, a couple of shots made it through to demolish the remainder of the defenseless flagship's hull, destroying the final Hishen starship.

The Hishen fleet was completely wiped out, while the Star Navy lost two destroyers and two frigates (although severely damaged, the light cruiser is now fully repaired and ready for its next fight). It was a fun game, and it took me around an hour-and-a-half to play. Thanks, Ed!