Last in Space

 

It's Memorial Day weekend and that means all the cool gamers in CA. head off to Kublacon; the largest, most diverse, most fun convention on the west coast.

I am not a cool gamer, and I didn't go.  Again.  Life is lame.  Now it's been several years and I am out of the loop.

Instead, I had over some other non-cool gamers for one last super big, GIANT, but actually medium sized space battle; before I pack away all these starships and give space a rest for awhile.  I managed to entice my good space buddy Mr. DJ (from the Lasgunpacker blog), Mr. PC, and Mr. AM.  As a bonus everyone had played this game before within living memory.  So it wasn't so much teaching the rules as it was recovering lost memories...

Pew Pew!
Zip Zip!
And other Spaceship noises.
(except there is no sound in space,  I KNOW!)

I Shouldn't Host at My House Anymore

Because it's embarrassing.  My family had multiple meltdowns the morning of the game while they were getting ready to get out of the house (I never tell my family they have to leave.  And I don't mind if the kids see me play miniature games or want to come hang out and whatever, but on this occasion my wife decided to take them to her parents house in the bay area kinda at the last minute) so while my friends are pulling up and getting out of their cars; We are all in the driveway yelling at each other.  I'm yelling at my daughter for being spaz and over reacting and just get in the damn car already, my wife is yelling at me to stop yelling  in front of the neighbors, and etc..  

So friends get of their car, wave hello, realize we're having a big fight, and then stand there awkwardly for it to finish.  

Family finally drives away and then they have to stand around some more while I finished setting up the game because I was too busy yelling.  And now I am grouchy.  Grouchy on Game day no less.

Sometimes families are hard.  Sometimes more than sometimes, it seems.

BUT!  I recovered quickly, the game sets up fast (a hex mat, a few asteroids, oh look done!)  and we're off zooming in space.  

 

The scenario was a simple shoot the other side's ships till they die and the bodies of the crew are blown out to the vacuum of space.  That's right;  I said blown out to space, not sucked out.  That's correct, look it up.

Players were able to choose their fleets using a pool of victory points.  Each Federation player would have 16 points, and each Klingon player would have 14 and be able to cloak two ships at once.  

For the Federation: I chose a Galaxy class (8), an Akira Class (4), an Excelsior class (2), and a Defiant Class (2).  Mr DJ chose a Sovereign class (10) and 3 Excelsior class (2 each). 

For the Klingons: Mr. AM chose 3 Vorcha class (4 each) and 2 Kvort (1 each, but not worth any points if it's destroyed because it's so small).  Mr PC chose 2 Vorcha Torpedo Module class (4 each), a Vorcha class (4), and a Makesh class (2).  

I know that many of you while reading that your brain went "blah blah blah - spaceships."  Don't worry about it.  My brain does the same thing on posts about Napoleonics: I read dragoons, cuirassiers, carabiniers, lancers, or chasseurs and my brain says  "blah blah blah - cavalry."  then I look at the pretty pictures.  

(you can look at this previous post HERE if inclined to read about ship classes).  

Here are some pretty pictures.

Players could deploy half their fleet at the start of the game and the other half were off table.  During the end phase of each turn each off table ship rolls a die and keeps a running total.  When it hits 7 or greater the ship arrives, "it warps in" and is placed on the table and is available next turn.

Which means that a ship MIGHT arrive at the end of turn 2, would most probably arrive at the end of turn 3, VEEY LIKELY to arrive at the end of turn 4, and anything beyond that is just your bad luck stop rolling 1s and 2s already.

Victory was set at half the total points for the entire enemy fleet (so the Federation had to destroy 14 points of Klingon ships, while the Klingons had to destroy 16 points of Federation ships).  Ships that flew off the table or into an asteroid count as destroyed.  Ships that used their warp drives to escape would count as half victory points.  

We all had a good time.  The Starmada Unity rules with my small tweaks seem to be working great, and are a lot of fun.  Plus, when the game ended I was family free for the evening.

I Should Host at My House all the Time

because people bring gifts.  When the game was over and we were all kibitzing about Star Trek This and Star Trek That, whether the old style ships of TOS are better than the TNG ships, attractive alien women, and why haven't I done the Romulans yet?  Good space buddy Mr DJ presented me with a gift of a DS9 style starbase that he 3D printed...

HOLE-LEE Crap.
That is Awesome.

Size reference shot.
The Defiant class ship in the pic is about an inch long.
Huge bonus points for it being in the same scale as my ships are.

I was bound to get one of these, eventually, one day.  That day has come a lot sooner thanks to Mr. DJ's generosity.   

Thanks again Mr. DJ.

Also, my long time buddy Mr. PC brought over a tub of Star Wars X-Wing (1st edition) stuff and told me to take it because he hasn't looked at it in years and years.  "there's more somewhere in storage too."

Course, I haven't touched my X-wing stuff in years and years (and years) either.  But these are small details best forgotten.

Thanks again Mr. PC.  

So all this wonderful stuff just for having people over
to play a game I WANTED to play and the cost
of two frozen gluten free pizzas.

Miniature wargamers are the best people and this is the best hobby.

And to think that when I go over to someone else's house to play a game; I don't bring bupkis and I steal the toilet paper out of the bathroom.

Thanks for reading.

Double Thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.