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.

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.

Battle Report: Fleet Exercise (Part 2)

The battle is continued from part 1.

Events of Turn 2 (DDC @ 8):
Tom's Sister damaged Tom's Frigate 1.
I destroyed the same Frigate.
Tom captured one of Tom's Sister's HVAs.
Tom's Sister captured one of my HVAs.

Tom: 30 points.
Me: 21 points.
Tom' Sister: 18 Points.







Events of Turn 3 (DDC @ 5):
Tom's Sister damaged my Blue Frigate then rammed it with one her Cruiser 1.
Tom damaged Tom's Sister's Cruiser 1.
Tom's Sister damaged Tom's Cruiser.
Tom's Sister damaged Tom's Frigate 2.

Tom: 30 points.
Me: 21 points.
Tom' Sister: 18 Points.









Events of Turn 4 (DDC @ 2):
Tom damaged Tom's Sister's Frigate 2.
Tom's Sister destroyed Tom's Cruiser.
I destroyed Tom's Sister Frigate 1.
The Doomsday Clock ticks down to zero.

Tom: 24 points.
Me: 21 points.
Tom' Sister: 15 Points.








Thoughts & Observations:

• We continue our streak of having at least one ramming attack per game.  Tom's Sister made up for Stevenik's absence.
• I went with all Frigates for maneuverability and to bid for Defender position. My strategy was to run away.  It worked for half a turn.
• We may play the next session with Frame Companies but without Boarding rules.
• We had the same table, and the engagement area didn't seem as claustrophobic.
• Once again we ignored the terrain placement rules.
• The only time Point Defense weapons got used was with White Dice by a mostly destroyed ship.
• I like this version of the game and hope we play it again.

Battle Report: Fleet Exercise (Part 1)

On Sunday, July 27th, 2014, two of the usual suspects returned to The Whiz.  Tom and myself were joined by Tom's Sister for another day of Lego spaceship carnage.  This time around we had decided to Play Intercept Orbit without using Frame Companies.

The squadrons broke down as follows:
Tom (3 Tactical Assets & 10 Systems) = (6 Points per Asset) * (5 total Assets) = 30 Points.
Tom's Sister (4 Tactical Assets & 14 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (6 total Assets) = 18 Points.
Me (3 Tactical Assets & 9 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (5 total Assets) = 35 Points.

Here are pictures of the game at start up.  My ships are the clump in the center.  Tom's are arrayed to the right in the picture above.  Tom's Sister has her ships on the left.  I had a reason for setting up like that and it will be revealed at the end of the battle report.




Events of Turn 1 (DDC @ 11):
I tried to maneuver out of the engagement area.

Tom's Sister damaged my Red Frigate.
Tom's Sister destroyed my Red Frigate.
Tom's Sister damaged Tom's Cruiser.
Tom damaged Tom's Sister's Frigate 1.

Tom: 30 points.
Me: 28 points.
Toms' Sister: 18 points.

This is the log sheet that Tom created to keep 

track of everything that happens in the game.

To be continued...

Battle Report: The Last Battle of June

On Sunday, June 29th, 2014, four people once again gathered together to wage interstellar war.  Grafvonbarnez, Tom, Stevenik, and myself returned to The Whiz to inflict great hurt on each other via little Lego spaceships.

The squadrons broke down as follows:
Tom (4 Tactical Assets & 7 Systems) = (6 Points per Asset) * (5 total Assets) = 30 Points.
Grafvonbarnez (4 Tactical Assets & 10 Systems) = (5 Points per Asset) * (5 total Assets) = 25 Points.
Stevenik (4 Tactical Assets & 10 Systems) = (5 Points per Asset) * (5 total Assets) = 25 Points.
Me (4 Tactical Assets & 12 Systems) = (4 Points per Asset) * (5 total Assets) = 20 Points.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of our starting positions.

Events of Turn 1 (DDC @ 11):
I seize Tom's HVA.  Stevenik seizes Tom's HVA from me.  Grafvonbarnez seizes Tom's cruiser.  Tom seizes my cruiser.  I seize Grafvonbarnez's frigate.  Three out of the four player's Tactical Assets take damage.  No damage for Grafvonbarnez's Tactical Assets.  We all tick down the Doomsday Clock.

Stevenik: 30 Points.
Grafvonbarnez: 25 Points.
Tom: 24 Points.
Me: 20 points.











Events of Turn 2 (DDC @ 6):
I relinquish Grafvonbarnez's frigate.  I seize Grafvonbarnez's carrier.  Tom seizes back his cruiser.  Stevenik seizes Tom's frigate.  Grafvonbarnez seizes Stevenik's frigate.  Tom relinquishes my cruiser.  Stevenik and Grafvonbarnez tick down the Doomsday Clock.

Stevenik: 30 Points.
Me: 24 points.
Grafvonbarnez: 20 Points.
Tom: 18 Points.











Events of Turn 3 (DDC @ 3):
Stevenik uses Grafvonbarnez's frigate to ram Grafvonbarnez's carrier -- which is under my control.  He one-shots it, rams it to death, and my frame company hops on to the frigate in response.  All this to prevent my frame company from refueling and relaunching.  This was the most thought out and debated move of the game.  A bunch of other things happened but they just weren't as interesting.  :-)  Then the clock was ticked down to end the game.


Tom: 24 Points.
Grafvonbarnez: 20 Points.
Me: 12 points.
Stevenik: 10 Points.













Thoughts & Observations:

• Stevenik continues his one-shot streak, although it is no longer in the first round.
• He also continues his ramming streak.
• Part of me considers ramming problematic, but it does elicit a giddy reaction from everyone at the table.
• As an experiment, we're going to play without Frame Companies our next game.
• At no point during the game was I in the lead.
• We had a larger table, but the engagement area still seemed claustrophobic.  Is this an artifact of the rules?
• Once again we ignored the terrain placement rules.
• Best line of the game, "Catapults count as weapons." by Tom.