Solo Mission 1 - Mercy Mission - PART 2

So, the thing is...

At Command Level 3, once you come to a halt as a MAS1/POW1 vessel, it's really hard to turn around and get moving again.

I had, with tremendous forethought and no appreciation for its significance, angled the stranded vessel facing away from my jump-gate and its exit point.  So now I would need to spend several turns getting it to come about far enough to head for safety.

In order to try to stop it taking massive amounts of incoming fire from the Red Fleet, Behemoth plunged deep into the heart of the enemy, incoming fire quickly stripping away her shields.  By the time she punched through their lines, she had taken 3 hull damage (with it requiring 6 to destroy her).

Thankfully, her sister, Leviathan, was close at hand to help draw off some of the fire and took no small amount herself - losing her own shields and taking 2 hull damage.

In the time this took, though, the Celeste and the Daring were able to turn themselves about and begin fleeing for the exit.  The Daring had selflessly given her best helmsman over to the Celeste but, as a result, the Daring found itself struggling to manoeuvre in time (let me tell you: M3 is not enough at CL3 when you are constantly at -1 manoeuvre on tests).  I was alternating between three options: just taking the straight two manoeuvres (but being unable to use my POW token to increase this because that can only be used on a test), using a test to recover my POW, and then using a test, plus POW to get enough manoeuvres to increase my speed!

Suddenly, tragedy struck!  The light of the distant jump-gate flickered and died!  There would be no escape this turn, and nor would any further reinforcements arrive for the Uranians (this was the result of a Joker appearing, which I decided would remove the jump-gate for a turn).

Thankfully, though, as Behemoth and Leviathan brought themselves about, and just as a fresh enemy carrier arrived with reinforcements (yay for two Jokers in a row), the Uranians saw the jump-gate explode back into life and, its form silhouetted against the bright light, the sight of the grateful Celeste plunging into its safe embrace.

With victory secure, the remaining Uranian vessels made a final break for home.  But the consequences for the Daring of their brave sacrifice were tragic and fatal, as a pair of harrying light cruisers whittled away her shields before landing an unstoppable final blow (with advantage and at 13" range, the bogey rolled 12, 12, 6 leaving me to ponder exactly what a bogey does with bonuses [an answer is now in the rules]).

Too far away to help, Behemoth and Leviathan had no option but to watch as their loyal little sister burned against the stars.  Their crews could only pray that the lives of the rescued civilians were worth the terrible cost...

Learning Points

I have constantly wavered over the -1 manoeuvre at CL3 (in fact, it used to be -2 in early playtests, but I quickly murdered that idea!).  But it actually forced some incredibly interesting decisions, as vessels made damage control or open fire! tests instead, counting on better odds to earn bonuses that would allow them to also make manoeuvres.

As the battle progressed, I learned to use the option of taking a fixed two manoeuvres more often, when it really counted (I nearly lost both Behemoth and Leviathan off the table, which would have meant them being lost from the battle entirely.

The Red Fleet was interesting and challenging but insufficiently mobile, so I've tweaked the probabilities fractionally to make sure they increase speed more often than they used to.

Also, in response to patron feedback, momentum is now "speed" in order to be more scientifically consistent.  It feels less space-y but is, actually, more technically correct (which is the best kind of correct).

I'm going to try to re-play the mission at CL1 and see if it still hangs together.