Updates and a Battle Report

Hey All!

Sorry for the long drought between posts, but I assure you I am still tabletop gaming.  In fact, over the past two days, I have gotten in a rather large game of Firestorm Armada and a game of Power Grid.

First things first, I have to apologize for no pictures.  Both games happened to be pick up games that we not arranged prior, so I didn't take any pictures.  If you are allergic to long blocks of text, I will give a short and sweet replay, with a narrative battle report following.

RSN Forces (Inferno Fleet):
commanded by myself (sinscaptain)

Spectre Battleship (Battlecruiser really)
- x4 Interceptors flying CAP
x3 Spook Cruisers
x2 Phoenix Destroyers
x2 Phoenix Destroyers
x3 Bulwark Frigates
x3 Bulwark Frigates

Terran Alliance (Strike Fleet Templar)
commanded by my friend The CEO

Razorthorn Battleship
Ares MkII Carrier
- x6 Bombers
- x6 Assaulters
x3 Sentinel Cruisers
x4 Pilgrim Frigates
x2 Pilgrim Frigates

Battlefield was open except for 4 gun platforms ringing 3 torpedo satellites.  We made a simple rule where if you got within 4" of a satellite you controlled it.  This was to level the playing field a little bit because of any points difference.  We hadn't calculated points wanting to just throw down and get playing, so we used these platforms to offer an advantage.  They proved helpful, but not obnoxiously so.

Deployment - The RSN left to right: Spooks, Spectre, Destroyers, Frigates, Destroyers, Frigates.
The Terrans right to left:  Frigates, Cruisers, Frigates, Battleship, Carrier.

Game:

The game went surprisingly smooth at first.  The Spooks managed to ping some damage on the Carrier, and then the frigates all sped forward to try and get some of the satellites.  My Destroyers opened up on frigates and whipped them off the map.  Then his battleship moved up and scored a few points on my Spooks, but was cautious because of how badly they had hurt him in the past.  Then I moved up more destroyers and pegged him for a few points, and started to really hurt his Carrier.  I threw my battleship at it, and for the rest of the game I shot as much as I could spare at the carrier with one hull point on it.  I couldn't manage to kill it all game.  I focused so much on it that he got off a full salvo from his broadsides on his own cruisers against my frigates - crushing a squadron - and then AGAIN against my destroyers.  The highlight of the game was probably right about here, where a rolling broadside completely blew up a destroyer.  That was bad enough, but the explosion from her sister ship gutted the other destroyer with double crits - both of them decompressions in a fit of bad luck.  The game pretty much went down hill from there.  I ended up taking him down to 85-90% of his original fleet strength while he crushed most of my fleet, save the battleship once again, and a single destroyer.