Fleet File Vol 12 and First playtest Review

 

   Fleet File Vol 6 review

The set is focused on the empire carriers and both empire and Alliance light cruisers

Bang-goo: out of all the Alliance flagships the Bang Goo has a thicker midsection and profile than the standard ship.  Quite a nice design.

    2x Imperial cruiser (Goldenbaum and Goldlowe Version): Truthfully the imperial cruiser design is not my favourite especially the soft curve of the front prow.  Having a couple extra models though is quite useful.

    3x Alliance cruiser: standard alliance cruiser, as i mentioned other times it's quite useful for wargaming purposes how there are multiple models of standard ships included in these sets.

    4x Imperial carrier (788 UC era) (Walküre and Gunship  carrier) (Goldenbaum and Goldenlöwe versions): this is the main part of this set, in comparison with the alliance carriers these models are a lot bigger in both volume and length.

There are not many large differences in the two carrier ship types apart from the pattern on the top. Again the fact that these sets provide both Goldenlowe and Goldenbaum versions is great for the standard ships since it allows to beef up the ranks, otherwise it would end up like the alliance carriers of which they only came in one pair.

Overall this set is a must have if you need to have the Imperial carriers as they are only available here. Everything else in this set if fairly non-exceptional.

Play Test

Last week I played a simple game with a friend to get some feedback on the general concepts of the game system. I'll have a brief recap of the game and then go on some points to change and consider for updating the rules.

The battle isn't an example from the actual series, it's a made up scenario using Yang and Reinhard as the main commanders.

The forces are as follows:

Yang Wen-Li: commander

1x Hospital ship

1x Hyperion

7x Standard battleships

Generic sub commander:

1x Abai Geser

6x cruisers

Reinhard von Lohengramm: commander

1x Brunhild

7x Standard battleships

2x Fast battleships

Bittenfeld: sub-commander

1x Konigs Tiger

2x cruisers

2x fast battleships

The scenario simply has the two main commanders squaring off in the center of the map while the two smaller and faster squandrons are coming from the right flank.

For simplicity the only difference between the ships was the rate of movement (faster for fast battleships and cruisers) and the firing distance (shorter for crusisers).

The hospital ship acted as an area to recover morale points for the allied player as well as being able to re-roll the first failed morale check each turn due to its bulk.

The imperial side decided to quickly close distance with its main force while trying to concentrate fire on the allied left flank. On the wing admiral Bittenfeld succeeded his command rolls and was quickly able to also close the distance and crash into the hyperion from the flank.

Long range frontal firing had little effect as most of the hit rolls did not actually inflict any damage on the allied player but one ship in the center suffered several fails in a row leading it to create a gap in the formation weakening the allied left flank.

At the same time the flanking allied sub commander failed its command roll and opted for a more cautious approach. Due to the failed roll it only was able to move forward half its force while two ships lagged behind.

Due to the delay the main allied force took the brunt of the imperial attack for two full turns alone.

After that the allied cruisers managed to close the distance and attacked from the rear an isolated formation of fast imperial battleships. Some extremely lucky rolls though meant that the battleships survived the first attack and then managed to turn around to fight (thus losing the attacked in the rear penalty).

At the same time the allied hospital ship was engaged at close range by two imperial cruisers and forced off the map. The next turn the main allied force was almost completely enveloped by imperial forces and conceded the match.

Thoughts and adjustments to the system:

• Combat needs to be more deadly, the standard save throw was against a 7 for most ships and that is too high leading to a very low casualty rate from ranged fire.
• Orders need to be more clear and easy to use/execute
• It would be interesting to have some sub-orders that individual ships can execute to rearrange their location with a formation.
• More differentiation between ships.

Overall the foundation of the system seemed adequate but a lot of improvements and changes need to be made and will require some thought on how to best implement.