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Paint update, a pair of Brakiri Haliks;


Got a new game mat this week and am eager to get it into use, all new neoprene so hopefully shiny glare will be a thing of the past in my reports (except unpainted models...).

Nice! B5 recently was on my mind as I saw a youtube video that said the original seasons were actually rendered not on $30,000+ SGI machines like the hollywood movies but banks of lowly Amigas with video toaster boards installed and only 2mb of RAM!

Brakiri do make some great looking ships - nciely done

Thanks, got an Avioki Cruiser done as well;

Welcome to the final instalment of the first chapter of the War for the Markab system.

The digging on Septis II had been on going since the glorious Lion of Galaxy had taken the planet. On the Southern continent they had been working furiously to extract as many metal ores as possible to expand the fleet of House Tavari. Weeks into the digging workers started to disappear, at first no one was concerned as they were only Narn slaves. Then overseers started to go missing, then soldiers. Finally a massive search force was sent deep into the mine to unravel the mystery, what they found drove many to madness. In the cold dark below the planet's surface they found a deeper darkness. Eventually with the aid of automated worker bots the find was dragged to the surface and analysis of it could begin though it defied all the Centauri's best scientists abilities. All they could tell was that it was ancient, over a thousand years old and somehow it was alive. It spoke to the scientists that worked on it, it spoke words of madness and pain, of death and destruction and of rebirth. Finally the Centaurum and even the Emperor himself heard word of what had been uncovered on Septis II and a Royal Fleet was sent to bring the find back to Centauri Prime. After much delay and many lost lives the darkness was loaded on the most powerful ship in the fleet, a mighty Octurion Battleship and the fleet turned for home with Lord Tavari in charge...

Deployment;
The Royal Centauri fleet consisted of an Octurion Battleship, a Primus Battlecruiser, a Sulust escort destroyer, a Balvarin carrier, 2 Maximus frigates and 4 Vorchan warships. they deployed with the Sulust, Primus, Octurion and Balvarin in line astern with a Wolfpack consisting of 2 Vorchans and a Maximus on either flank.


The enemy... didn't deploy.


Lord Tavari was content. He was being recalled to Centauri Prime at the behest of the Emperor himself due to the find his workers had found on Septis II, his star was in the ascendant and soon his House would eclipse the fools and sheep of the court like Mollari or Refa. He stood in the command center of the mighty "Lion's Claw" observing the precision of the fleet maneuvering around it, whilst he was proud of his House's fleet he was deeply impressed with the professionalism of the Officers of the Royal Fleet. He gazed forward looking at the perfect alignment of the Primus Battlecruiser dead ahead and a Sulust in front of that. Suddenly space seemed to blink, he couldn't explain it but it was like a clouded lens had obscured the stars well in front of the fleet. He stared hard at the patch of space trying to work out what was happening, it wasn't a jump point opening he knew but he had never heard of any natural cause that could account for this. As he stared he began to shiver, then shake as with a mind ripping scream of horror and despair the darkness of the void came alive and turned into ships. Ships so black they seemed to be made of the deep void forged into the form of giant spiders, ships that accelerated toward his. Ships that began to spit bright pulses of light, light that cut like swords. In the blink of an eye the largest of the sudden enemies' ships beam weapon speared into the Sulust leading the convoy and in a bright flare of death its reactor blew apart in a cataclysmic ball of fire than annihilated all four of the Sentri flights that were escorting it. The turrets on the Primus ahead began to track and fire and he swore that some of the beams hit the giant spider but they seemed to cause no damage.


Lord Tavari watched as the Centauri fleet accelerated to get to grips with the unknown enemy with the Wolf Packs and fighters sweeping around to flank the foe. Suddenly an alarm started to ring, glancing at the display he saw two more enemy spider ships appear behind the fleet. Just as suddenly they fired on the Balvarin and blew it to atoms, Sentri flights swarmed all over the two new ships and started to pound away with their particle guns but to no apparent effect. At the front of the convoy the Primus and Octurion pounded firepower into the enemy capital ship blasting chunks of it into the void, in return the main enemy ship's slicer beam ripped into the Primus whos hull gave way and blistered outward as secondary explosions rippled through her. The Wolf Packs concentrated their fire on the smaller spiders but inflict little damage that he could see. Suddenly a bright blaze of light streamed past his window coming from the rear, it bored into the Primus and blasted it to pieces. On the left flank the smallest enemy ships slaughtered the brave Sentri flights that were trying to intercept them.



The fire was coming thick and fast now and Lord Tavari could barely keep track of it, he watched as the Wolf Packs split apart and sought to hunt down their own targets. The mighty Octurion suddenly lurched and shuddered as explosions rippled through it as the forward gun magazines blew apart in a spectacular fireball, another shot sliced deep into her bowels and blew apart the engineering decks. Lord Tavari decided that survival was more important than glory and sprinted to the life pods. As the capsule blew into the void he turned to watch out of the rear view window and watched in horror as the mighty Octurion blew apart under a fusillade of fire. As the fireball faded his attention was drawn forward as one of the Maximus evaporated in fire and seconds later a Vorchan followed.



Tears streamed down Tavari's face, so many had died and the fleet was in ruins. As he watched the remaining Maximus blew apart in one slicing shot, then a Vorchan, then another Vorchan. Two of the smaller spiders had trapped the last Vorchan between them and blew it apart in seconds. Lord Tavari fumbled his pistol from its holster and put it to his head, the last thing he saw was a flight of enemy fighters being cut apart by two Sentri flights. The last thought to go through his mind was a brief surge of satisfaction that the Centauri had finally destroyed some of their ships. The last thing to go through his brain was a bright bolt of weaponised light and his pod spun on into the black of the void as the nameless enemy flickered and disappeared.



Thus ends the last game of chapter one. For anyone curious the Shadow Fleet consisted of 3 Young Ships, 2 Stalkers and 4 scouts and they really did only loose one single fighter flight as well as half damage to the Young Ship that had appeared at the front of the convoy. In game terms it was absolutely ridiculous, the Shadow player ended up inflicting 27 critical hits on the Centauri ships (8 of them on the Balvarin alone) and one shotted both Maximus, 3 of four Vorchan and the Balvarin.

Awesome report

One of the things about the game is that the higher powered races do play in a similar way to tehy act on screen.

So a Early Years EA fleet is horribly outmatched by a Minbari fleet and most powers die horrbily to the Ancients - although Dilgar are pure death to Vorlon fleets

Thought that would make you happy!

I am still not convinced on the Vorlons, so susceptible to being initiative sunk to death.

Of course this last report was deliberately horribly unbalanced as the Shadow fleet was 10pt and the Centauri were 6pt but it was not helped by the fact that the Centauri fleet were forced to take an Octurion (which is pretty crap) and the Maximuses are of pretty much no use against a beam heavy fleet.

Still if the game hadn't been played on Vassal we would have had to have checked the Shadow players dice for weights, he consistently rolled sixes for beams (we use Burgers system), for damage and for crits! Nicely turned the report into what was shown on the screen though!

Would love to see a Dilgar v Vorlon game as I never have. Speaking of Dilgar... that's the campaign we are playing at the moment!

Long break between posts as normal! Finished an Abbai Cruiser using the new Contrast paint for the hull.

Nice looknig ship - what range is that from?

Going back to Dilgar vs Vorlons - the Dilgar win because they have so many missiles hitting from long range, plenty of cheap scouts to get re-rolls and the Vorlons are Hull 5 with no active defences. By the time they get into range they have usually taken nast crits. Shadows at least have stealth and or shields/dodge.

Looks like a something from Firestorm Armada.

 Easy E wrote:
Looks like a something from Firestorm Armada.

Ahha yep thats what I recognise it from!

Indeed, google tells me it is a Directorate Vanquisher class cruiser, it was a gift from the last secret santork here. Going to be using it as an Abbai Lakara cruiser.

Mr Morden, not at all surprised that Dilgar would kick Vorlons teeth in. I actually struggle to think of any time I have seen Vorlons do well they just seem to get outflanked and torn to shreds. Love the Dilgar though, at 10pt Battle they are probably the most fun fleet to play as, loads of variety, very few auto picks, all priority levels have a useful option (thats not just ininitative sinking!) and yet handled poorly they pop like soap bubbles. Had a game of Dilgar v Narn a couple of weeks ago that was an absolute slug fest think there were three ships left on the table by turn 6.

 ingtaer wrote:
Indeed, google tells me it is a Directorate Vanquisher class cruiser, it was a gift from the last secret santork here. Going to be using it as an Abbai Lakara cruiser.

Mr Morden, not at all surprised that Dilgar would kick Vorlons teeth in. I actually struggle to think of any time I have seen Vorlons do well they just seem to get outflanked and torn to shreds. Love the Dilgar though, at 10pt Battle they are probably the most fun fleet to play as, loads of variety, very few auto picks, all priority levels have a useful option (thats not just ininitative sinking!) and yet handled poorly they pop like soap bubbles. Had a game of Dilgar v Narn a couple of weeks ago that was an absolute slug fest think there were three ships left on the table by turn 6.

Vorlons (unlike the Shadows) do have both a Raid and a Skirmish level ship, They are deadly against shorter range fleets and in fact the Shadows themselves due to their beams (and the weakness of the Shadow fighters)

Dilgar are powerful but can suffer against Centauri and Minbari - both of whom have good defences and/or high hull. Centauri and Minbari fighters are also better.