Battle Report: Back In (Intercept) Orbit

After almost six years we've returned to Intercept Orbit as a gaming group.  It's been close to ten years since we've played the RAW.  Occam's Spork was new to IO and I hadn't played in a long time so this was basically a learning experience for both of us.

Me (5 Tactical Assets & 18 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (8 assets) = 56 points. (Fleet 6)
   Great White Cruiser Heavy Hunter Seeker -- 2Rs+d8/2Y/2W.
   Lime Thresher Frigate Pocket Carrier -- 2Rpd/2K/1Gd6/2W.
   Red Thresher Frigate Escort -- 2Rpd/2B/1Gd6/2W.
   Lime Frame Squad (Yellow Ace) -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y+d8/2W.
   Lavender Frame Squad -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.

Occam's Spork (6 Tactical Assets & 21 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (9 assets) = 27 points. (Fleet 17)
   Manta Ray Cruiser Heavy Hunter Seeker -- 2Rs+d8/2Y/2W.
   Lime Stingray Frigate Light Carrier -- 2Rpd/2K/1Gd6/2W.

   Yellow Stingray Frigate Light Carrier -- 2Rpd/2K/1Gd6/2W.
   Red Stingray Frigate Heavy Escort -- 2Rpd+d8/1B/1Gd6/2W.
   White Frame Squad (Yellow Ace) -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y+d8/2W.
   Black Frame Squad -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.

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

Events of Round 1 (DDC@11): Occam's Spork's Yellow frigate maneuvers through my formation, captures my Blue HVA, then launches his Black frame squad onto my Cruiser.  My Lime frigate initiates an intense maneuver burn -- cutting across the bow of my Cruiser -- then hits Occam's Spork's Black frame squad for 2.  My Lavender Frame Squad is launched onto and captures Occam's Spork's Green HVA, then jumps to Occam's Spork's Lime frigate.  My Lime frame squad (Yellow Ace) is launched onto my Cruiser.  Occam's Spork's Black frame squad hits my Cruiser for 1, then hops to my Lime frigate.  My Cruiser hits Occam's Spork's Red frigate for 1 then turns to starboard.  My Lime frame squad (YA) jumps to my Lime frigate then hits Occam's Spork's Black frame squad for 3.  Occam's Spork's Cruiser hits my Cruiser for 3.  Occam's Spork's White frame squad (Yellow Ace) hits my Red frigate for 1.  Occam's Spork's White frame squad (YA) boards my Red frigate.  In response my Red frigate hits Occam's Spork's White frame squad for 2.  My Lime frame squad (YA) prevents Occam's Spork's Black frame squad from boarding my Lime frigate.  During that boarding attempt my Lime frigate hits Occam's Spork's Black frame squad for 1, destroying it.  My Lavender frame squad fails to board Occam's Spork's Lime frigate.  All HVAs on both sides begin a maneuver scramble looking for open space away from the conflict.

Me: 49 points.

Occam's Spork: 27 points.

Events of Round 2 (DDC @ 8): My Red frigate -- under control of Occam's Spork's White frame Squad (YA) -- banks to starboard and rams my Lime frigate, doing 2 damage to itself and 1 damage to the Lime frigate.  My Lime frame squad swings around the hull of my Lime frigate and hits Occam's Spork's White frame squad (YA) for 2.  My Lime frigate hits Occam's Spork's White frame squad (YA) for 4, destroying it.  Occam's Spork's Yellow frigate hits my Lime frigate for 7, destroying it, then banks to starboard.  Occam's Spork's Lime frigate banks slightly to port, moving between an asteroid and a planetoid, then hits my Cruiser for 1.  Occam's Spork's Red frigate moves forward and captures my Red HVA.  Occam's Spork's Cruiser hits my Cruiser for 1, destroying it.  My Lavender frame squad boards Occam's Spork's Lime frigate.  All HVAs on both sides continue to maneuver for open space away from the conflict.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to five.  The game is called on account of time.

Me: 35 points.

Occam's Spork: 30 points.

Here are several during and aftermath pictures.

Round 1.

Round 1.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Thoughts & Observations:

• Did I say Rules As Written?  I kinda lied.  We counted Frame Squad Systems when doing PPA calculations.
• This is something I've been talking about wanting to change in the rules structure for IO for a while.
• But with only one data point I'm not sure what effect it's going to have.
• I went back and worked on a lot of different starship designs in preparation for this game.
• Since I was anticipating more players I only had two fleets with three HVAs built.
• I used a poster for the table covering for this game.
• We'll probably use less terrain next time as the book suggests three to five pieces and we had fourteen.
• We only color tagged the Frigates as there was only one Cruiser in each fleet.
• We had two successful Boardings, one unsuccessful, and one repelled.
• We had one Ram attack.  As far as I know this is the first one that did more damage to the rammer than the rammee.
• Yellow Aces and the stacking of Spots is really powerful.
• We had to cut things short due to a prior engagement for Occam's Spork.
• We lost a bunch of time in the prep/set up phase as we both were formulating our fleets from scratch.
• IO also has a few more steps than RA so that chewed up some time too.
• I was down two ships at the end of the second round so I probably would have lost if we played a longer game.
• I'm going to change up my fleet slightly for the next time I use it.
• I had mis-remembered the Yellow Ace powers so I built the fleet around a faulty idea.
• I feel like I had a less visceral reaction this time to playing IO under the regular rules than the last time we tried it.
• Flickr page.