The Neutral Zone - a Star Trek Space Battle

 

The engines cann'a tak it! Our Constitution Class Star Ship come under attack. 

This week we challenged Simon Elliott's Star Trek collection to a game of Space Battles - A Spacefarers Guide. We also christened Simon's new hex-gridded starfield mat to answer a question which many have asked - can you play Space Battles using a hex grid rather than a square grid? Well, let's give it a go! 

First off - the mat itself is a Deep Cuts Studio one and like all their mats a very nicely produced and attractive game mat. This one is six feet by four and approximately 30 hexes long and 20 wide. So, first thing note: we are using hexes rather than squares for the first time. Second thing to note: the size of the playing area is roughly three to four times the area in terms of  'spaces' compared to the standard version (13 x 13 spaces). How is that all going to affect the gameplay? We shall soon find out! 

The Neutral Zone - the scene of conflict

The Neutral Zone awaits! The Klingons have been up to their usual shenanigans, violating Federation space and laying waste to several outposts. We learn that a substantial battle group is heading towards the Neutral Zone, and a Federation fleet is sent to intercept the invaders. 

The Neutral Zone is divided by the barrier indicated here by a line remarked by four large spheres - each occupying a whole space. These spaces are treated as impassable to all ships, whilst debris moving into these spaces will be destroyed. 

Both sides will move on from their respective table edges either side of the Neutral Zone. The fastest ships arrive in turn one and the slower ships turn two. 

The objective is to occupy the opposing Neutral Zone, with the player with the most ships in the opposing half of the table at the end of the game the winner. We agreed to play six turns or until either side reduced to below half strength in the larger ship types. 

The models are from the Star Trek Attack Wing game, which have been rebased onto mdf hexagons. We started off by allocating the ships into standard types in terms of the game - the smallest shown in flights of three - are 'interceptors', the next in size become 'destroyers' and the larger ships 'cruisers'. Were we to introduce more ships (the Borg await on the sidelines) it would be worth running out some specific stats, including for the larger ships. For a first try out we stuck to the standard stats for the ships. 

I assumed command of the Federation fleet whilst Simon took on the Klingons with a startling cry of  'tlhlgan maH taHjaj'.

The Federation ships arrive first and head towards the nearside of the Neutral Zone. The Klingon ships mass in the opposing region close to their own side of the Neutral Zone. A single rogue flight stationed towards my flank. A distraction! 

I decided to hold the Federation ships behind the Neutral Zone until such time as my unprincipled opponent crosses over, thereby gaining the moral advantage. Needless to say, I didn't have to wait long. 

The Klingon interceptors hurl themsleves upon the two ships on my right flank - Consitution and Constellation class Star Ships (I believe). We give them a few accurate phaser blasts, taking advantage of the rule that allows shots to be divided between close targets. The result is to leave a couple of the opposing flights crippled or stripped of their weapons. We gallanty decide to press forward, leaving the interceptors for the larger, slower ship following in our wake. 

Meanwhile, my main force sweeps onto the flank of the approaching Klingon battlegroup. What can possibly go wrong! 

The Klingon ships keep a tight formation as they sweep through my first wave, sowing destruction in their wake. Shields and weapons are reduced to fifty percent strength and engines to half speed. 

My slower ships find themselves strung out attempting to turn into the enemy, leaving some out of range and others dangerously exposed. How did that happen? 

Meanwhile the Klingon interceptor flights use their superior movement to harass my trailing Star Ship. 

I'm suffering a bit from my sweeping manoeuvre leaving my fleet lined up at right-angles ot the enemy. Conversely, by keeping a tight formation the Klingons are able to bring their weaponry to bear on my leading ships. 

With both sides actively engaged both sides look for advantage, pushing attacks against weakened ships and trying to pull back damaged craft to make repairs. 

Two Klingon and one Federation ship quickly go down to massed phaser fire. Drifting debris starts to make close manoeuvre difficult not to mention dangerous. The red 'blast' markers have been used to represent wreckage.

The two remaining Klingon ships have swept in a circle and are joined by interceptors to pour fire into my lighter Star Ships. At the back, away from immediate dange, my badly damaged ship is attempting to make repairs. 

The Klingons destroy one Consellation Class Star Ship and wreak havoc upon another. The interceptors continue to peck away at my larger Star Ships, but take hits in return. Using the fast-moving interceptors to attack the ships that I'm trying to repair is a good tactic that effectively takes them out of the battle. Curses! 

But things are starting to bleak for the Klingon ship in the centre here,with hits to its engines, weapons and shields. With weakened shields opposing long-ranged shots are harder to deflect, and this ship is already down to half effectiveness with its engines and weapons.

Not that things are all going the Federation's way. The successful hit to the nearest ship's shields (the heart marker) means it won't be able to activate without passing a test to do so. The more damage a ship takes the harder it is to pass that test.

It's all over for the Klingons as my ships recross the Neutral Zone and deal a killing blow to the damaged enemy ship. With end of the game we cleared away the debris before I remembered to take the 'final turn' shot - so you'll just have to imagine the swaithes of crushed and mangled Klingon ships comprising a hazard to navigation through the Neutral Zone. 

With a final cry of 'tlhlgan maH taHjaj' my gallant opponent conceded the battle... but not the war! Needless to say Star Fleet shall not rest in its duty to protect the peace-loving peoples of the Fedration from those heinous Warmongering Klingons (Next Generation not withstanding). 

Overall impression using the new fleets and mat. The ship models are just the right size for any space-based game and the action fleet right using standard stats. We discussed extra or special rules that might be employed to represent things like photon torpedoes and cloaking devices within the Star Trek universe. Maybe next time we'll try some of those out. 

The hexes worked just fine, and to be honest I didn't notice any significant change in game play resulting from the use of hexes. We made one adjustment to the rules - namely for establishing the direction of moving debris. This is normally done with a card draw, which slightly favours debris to swirl clockwise. We decided to replace this with a D6 dice roll, considering a hex is six sided. This worked fine and is quicker to work out than a card draw, so we'll stick to that when using hexes in future. We would have also used a D6 for drifting ships, but never got the chance. Ships drift if engines are knocked out, and once again this is normally done with a card draw.

The size of the mat, with getting on for four time the standard area, worked very well for a fleet action. The larger area gave us plenty of room for manoeuvre to play a significant role in the battle. This worked out even better than I'd expected, considering his was the largest effective area I've used to date. This suggests the core system works for games over even larger areas as well as over hexes, and using far larger fleets should that opportunity arise. 

My thanks to the ever-generous Simon Elliott for hosting the game, permitting me to paw his wonderful collection of Star Trek models, and for introducing me to rudimentary Klingon.