Shadow Hunter 1-4

Hello Sportsfans,

So as I said last time, some friends and I got together to run through the Shadow Hunter campaign this Saturday. As expected, we got through the first four scenarios.

#1 - this was a basic movement scenario and to learn how bad it is to run into islands. I ran this by  myself since my friends were running late. I didn't see that basically all islands are hazardous terrain, so I just rolled the 2x hp for the damage. Even that double crit'd my ship. Had I roll 4x, I'm sure it would have sunk. So running into island is bad...very bad.

#2 - basic shooting scenario - two cruisers vs four frigates. Now here, I think the intent was for the cruisers to win, but the FSA frigates are just plain nasty. The EotBS cruisers got first move, and was able to sink one of the frigates. However, then the frigates moved in and were able to link all weapons together (at least how I read the rules). FSA frigates have two turrets per ship. So once they closed, they put out a silly amount of dice. They double crit'd one of the cruisers, making it basically fairly useless. As the next turn came around, the frigates were able to finish it off and then sail away before the other cruiser could finish them off.

#3 - boarding! - heavily damaged FSA battleship vs a squadron of EotBS frigates and a squadron of corvettes. The frigates went first, closed, and did some further damage to the BS, reducing its HP and putting two fire markers on it. This lent to some sad shooting from the BS which resulted in a single hit to a frigate. Then the corvettes started to close, but were too far to board (the BS used its kinetic generator to lurch ahead quite a bit). Round 2, the BS won init and again hit the "go fasta" button, which let it outpace the frigates, but not far enough away from the corvettes. Also, they were only able to remove one fire token, which basically wiped out the AP from the BS so the boarding action was unstoppable. Prize for the Blazing Sun.

#4 - SAS - here is where the book seemed to fail for me. There are no examples of SAS combat or actions that I have found. And there is no clear and complete steps for an SAS combat. I had to piece things together and make assumptions. For instance, the torpedo bombers are making a run against a ship. That ship gets to counter attack with AA vs the SAS, and then they get to defensive counter against the torpedoes with CC. Spelled out cleanly anywhere in the book? no. Or how about SAS fighters attacking the SAS torp bombers? By the book, the torp bombers get to counter attack with AA first, then you have the fighter SAS attack with their AA. You would think in a dogfight it would all by simultaneous, but I couldn't find a rule for that (I have now after searching the spartan forum).

Regardless, the torp bombers were able to kill one cruiser and then make it off the table before the fighters could finish them off. I do think the new SAS rules are cleaner than before and should speed things up.

All in all, we did find the game moving fairly well. LOS is still the most PITA part of this game. Firestorm Armada has such a nicer LOS system due to all models being on pegs. Can't be helped for DW I guess.

Still, will try to do more scenarios this upcoming weekend perhaps.