Battle Report: Intercept Orbit Revisit

For our game in July I lobbied for another try at Intercept Orbit -- as we may try to play at PAX Unplugged this year and I wanted to get some reps in before that happens.  So we gave it a try, or at least a stripped down version of it as Narbey had never played and Tom and I didn't want to cover all the different rules for IO.

Me (4 Ships & 13 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 42 points.  (12th Fleet)
   Blue Cruiser-- 2Rs+d8/2Y/2W.
   Orange Frigate-- 2Rs/2B/2W.
   Lime Frigate-- 2Ra/1B/1Y/2W.

   Red Frigate-- 2Ra/1B/1Y/2W.

Narbey (5 Ships & 16 Systems) = (4 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 28 points.  (14th Fleet)
   Grey Cruiser-- 2Ra/2Rpd/28/2W.

   Yellow Frigate-- 2Ra+d8/1Y/2W.
   Lime Frigate-- 2Ra+d8/1B/2W.

   Purple Frigate-- 2Rs+d8/1B/2W.
   Green Frigate-- 1B/2Y/2W.

Tom (5 Ships & 17 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 21 points.
   Big Guy Cruiser-- 2Rs+d8/2Y/2W.

   Regular Cruiser-- 2Ra+d8/2B/2W.
   Grey Frigate-- 2Ra/2B/2W.

   Regular Frigate-- 2Ra/2B/2W.
   Corbin's Frigate-- 2Ra/1B/1Y/2W.

This is what the table looked like at the start of the game.

Events of Turn 1 (DDC @ 11): Tom's Big Guy Cruiser holds position and hits Narbey's Yellow frigate for 1.  My Lime frigate moves into range and hits Tom's Corbin's frigate for 1.  Tom's Corbin's frigate moves forward and hits Narbey's Yellow frigate for 1.  My Orange frigate banks right then hits Tom's Regular cruiser for 5.  Tom's Regular cruiser then rams my Orange frigate doing 1 damage to the frigate and 2 damage to itself, getting destroyed in the process.  Tom's Regular frigate banks slightly right hits my Lime frigate for 3.  My Red frigate moves forward and banks slightly right then hits Tom's Corbin's frigate for 4, destroying it.  Narbey's Purple frigate banks to the right and hits my Red frigate for 4.  Narbey's Grey cruiser moves forward and hits my Orange frigate for 2.  Narbey's Pink frigate moves forward and hits my Lime frigate for 2, destroying it.  My Blue cruiser holds position and hits Narbey's Yellow frigate for 4, destroying it.

Me: 35 points.
Narbey: 24 points.
Tom: 15 points.

Events of Turn 2 (DDC @ 7): Narbey's Purple frigate banks around the small asteroid and hits my Blue frigate for 4.  Narbey's Green frigate moves forward and hits my Red frigate for 1, destroying it.  Narbey's Grey cruiser moves forward and hits Tom's Big Guy cruiser for 3.  Tom's Grey frigate holds position and hits Narbey's Grey cruiser for 1.  Narbey's Pink frigate banks right and hits Tom's Big Guy cruiser for 2 then seizes my HVA.  Tom's Regular frigate holds position and hits Narbey's Grey cruiser for 7, destroying it.

Narbey: 24 points.
Me: 21 points.
Tom: 15 points.

Events of Turn 3 (DDC @ 4): Narbey's Purple frigate banks left, moving down the table and hits Tom's Grey frigate for 3 after destroying the small asteroid it was hiding behind.  Tom's Grey frigate, in reprisal, hits Narbey's Pink frigate for 1 and then rams it for 3.  Narbey's Pink frigate then hits Tom's Regular frigate for 3, banking around the HVA it seized.  Tom's Regular frigate moves forward, near my HVA, and hits Narbey's Green frigate for 1.  My Orange frigate banks around and captures one of Narbey's HVAs.  My Blue cruiser moves away from the HVA it was protecting, therefore allowing Tom to capture it.  The DDC is ticked to zero.

Me: 21 points.
Narbey: 21 points.
Tom: 18 points.

Here's a picture of the aftermath of the first ram attack.

Thoughts & Observations:

• This was Narbey's first game of IO.
• In an effort to make it simpler, we didn't use Frame Companies.
• Or the Repair rule.
• We also monkeyed around with the HVA movement phase.
• We changed it to moving all HVAs at the end of the turn in reverse initiative order.
• Assault range -- being the default range of the game -- is pretty brutal.
• The amount of time needed to play each turn got less as the game went on.
• We were pretty heavy on the Doomsday Clock anyways as Narbey had someplace to be after the game.
• I think I finally figured out where my problem with IO lies.  I came into the game expecting Rapid Attack in space.  What Intercept Orbit actually is, is a naval combat simulation that just happens to use a similar ruleset to Rapid Attack.