Rocketmen Battle Reports

On a whim (and because the ships were cheap), I introduced our Pirates gaming group to Rocketmen, and it proved quite popular. This is the archive for our Rocketmen battle reports.

Feb 17, 2009
Jul 14, 2009

Laser Tag
Rocketmen Battle Report for 02/17/2009

Strange things have been known to happen when pirates get together, but nothing could have been stranger than tonight! Five pirate admirals gathered for battle, gold, and glory, not necessarily in that order. But as they exchanged boasts and threats in Ye Olde Root Beer Tavern, there was a sudden flash of light, and they found themselves in a far distant future, where space travel was a common thing and sailing ships were found only in museums. Pirates will be pirates, though; they shrugged, chose some new names for themselves, stole some spaceships, and set out for battle anyway.

This was our second game using WK's Rocketmen rules and ships. These rules, if you aren't familiar with them, are an extension of our Pirates rules, a bit more complicated and hugely more flexible. We used the "Tag, You're It" scenario, in which the goal is to fire on and hit each player's home asteroid at least once; the winner is the player who hits the most asteroids. Each player got a 30-point fleet, with the option to buy more ships if he/she brought in enough resources from deep space.

The five home asteroids were grouped in a rough circle, with one rogue asteroid and a cluster of microids floating in the middle. Those drifting minerals quickly became the focus of the Shadow Hunter and the Whale, who took his name from the shape of his ships. Each of them sent his cruiser to fill up with resources, and then run home to convert those resources into new ships. Those two space-admirals also used their fighters in the same way: they left them home to guard their asteroids against raiders.

The other three had no use for such peaceful occupations. Captain Redshirt saw both the Avenger and the Space Lady pointing their ships in his direction. He chose the first one, and his fleet (minus one fighter) collided with Jake head-on. Jake chose to concentrate fire on the big Samael, which carried five pods and was probably the most dangerous ship in the battle. Mike's fire was aimed at the Imperium, since she was the easiest target.

After one round of shooting, one Saturn fighter broke off and made an attack run on Jake's asteroid, but somehow missed it twice. The other fighter shattered a Martian fighter's shield pod, then turned and ran for Zach's asteroid. Zach's fighters deployed to intercept him, but their aim was poor and Mike's little birdie easily dodged the one shot that came close. This left the Samael facing Jake's entire fleet.

This was not a good thing for the Samael, which saw one pod after another shot away. But her own weapons were not idle, and Avenger's Imperium quickly saw all four pods destroyed. With only one laser left, the Samael knew her time was almost up, so she did the only thing that might matter: she docked with the defenseless Imperium and boarded her. Defenseless? She put up a ferocious fight. It took four waves of boarding and cost Mike's cruiser her last laser before the Legion rocketship belonged to him.

That is, she belonged to him for all of five seconds. That's how long it took the Zorg's Chargers Squadron to vaporize both it and the Samael. The big Vengeance, which came through the battle unscathed, turned to try and take out Mike's fighter before he finally zeroed in on Jake's asteroid, but the little Saturnian craft was agile and the big Martian cruiser couldn't shoot worth beans.

Meanwhile, Mike's other fighter had met the Space Lady of Death's advancing fleet, took a shot at her lead fighter, and missed. She tossed her hair and offered him a deal: if he let her shoot his asteroid, and didn't attack her again, she wouldn't kill him. He didn't think that was much of a deal; his being a sucker for the dames goes only so far. So he shot past her fleet and closed in on her home asteroid. At this, his adversary began humming, of all things, the wedding march. This shook Mike up and made him very curious, so he asked her what she meant by that. She cheerfully replied, "That's because you're marching to your death." We can only hope that isn't what she really thinks of the wedding march.

Near the Space Lady of Death's home port, the big Lord's Justice orbited threateningly. Mike's fighter ignored the cruiser, which shot twice and missed twice (the Lord didn't get much justice out of that one); his and Aimee's fighters shot at each other's homes at about the same time, and both scored hits.

At about this time, Shadow Hunter decided that his home asteroid wasn't being threatened by anyone, and his powerful fighter squadron was being wasted on guard duty. So he turned them loose, and they closed in on the Space Lady's home asteroid. One fighter successfully bombarded that asteroid, then joined its squadron mates in a futile pummeling contest with the Lord's Justice. The big Legion cruiser didn't have enough firepower to do any harm to the agile Mercury fighters, while the fighters didn't have any luck punching through the double shields and armored hull of the cruiser. Mike's fighter got nervous at all the energy flying through the vacuum of space and ducked behind the Space Lady's asteroid; his next goal was the Shadow Hunter's home.

It's doubtful he would have made it. The huge Andora returned home with her cargo holds bulging with resources. These were quickly converted into two rocketships, the Firefly (a Rebel ship) and the Zener's Secret (from Io). The newcomers fanned out and blocked Mike's path, while also setting a course to support the fighters in the Solar Flares Squadron.

Back on the other side of the ring of asteroids, Jake's home port had been bombarded twice, once by Aimee's fighter and once by Zach's. Jake didn't try to do either of them any harm, apparently because they didn't shoot his ships (just his home port). Mike warned the Space Lady not to trust a Martian, but the Avenger held his fire anyway. This gave the Space Lady of Death two home hits, versus one each for Shadow Hunter, Captain Redshirt, and the Whale.

And that was how it ended, just as suddenly as it began. The Whale's big cruiser was about to get home with a full load of resources, and Captain Redshirt's fighters were poised to get home hits on two, maybe three of the other admirals. If the battle had raged on for a few more turns, the outcome might have been very different. But whatever power had transferred the pirates into space now pulled them back. The Space Lady of Death was ruled the victor, with a three-way tie for second place. Mike tried our first boarding action, and successfully stole an enemy ship (for a very brief time). Jake scored no home hits, but he enjoyed blowing up the Samael very, very much.

Our conclusions: fighters and cruisers are very hard to hurt, something we noticed the first time we battled in space. Most of the shooting was ineffective, unless the target was a rocketship or unless the attackers were very numerous. Battles seem to involve getting into attack position and then blazing away motionless until something blows up. Resource hunting involves at least as much clever maneuvering as combat does, and if our games could last longer, the extra ships acquired from resources would probably tip the scales in somebody's favor. It takes longer to play a game than it takes for an equivalent point-value game of Pirates; this is due to the greater number of models on the table (everybody had four or five to start with), and the greater number of moves possible with the atomic-power point system (we call them action points).

One other thing: we like this game, and will probably play it again when we can.

Message transmitted on Seventeenth February,
Two Thousand Oh-Nine AD,
by Captain Redshirt

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Resource Management
Rocketmen Battle Report for 07/14/2009

Tonight was not a big night in terms of players; only three admirals showed up. They had decided in advance that this would be a good chance to try out their alter-egos as space admirals. We traded in our masts and gold coins for the night, in exchange for laser pods and microids and rocket ships from Pirates' sister game, Rocketmen. Okay, so this isn't a Pirates report; you'll find that there were just as many deals and betrayals as in the best Pirates battle, and plenty of shooting as well.

We used the standard 30-plus-30-point fleets, but the battle space was different. Instead of the usual rogue asteroid surrounded by a cloud of free-floating microids, we fought over three rogue asteroids surrounded by a cloud of free-floating microids. What's more, those asteroids didn't stay in place like good asteroids should. At the end of each turn, one of us would spin a spinner, and all the asteroids would move S in the indicated direction. Ships that were docked would move with their asteroid, but ships that got bumped, or that got pushed into a collision with another ship, would lose one pod.

As the action began, Captain Redshirt ignored the loose microids and concentrated entirely on the asteroids; the Avenger did the exact opposite and scooped up loose microids; and the Space Lady did a little of both. Redshirt made good use of the Dauntless' Rocket Engineer, which added much-needed speed to a very slow ship. But his first round of asteroid mining was a dud; his two cruisers managed to load exactly one resource between them, and their ham-handed miners destroyed another resource in the process. The Space Lady fared a little better, loading two free microids, while the Avenger was quickly rolling in mineral wealth. Too bad it was all the wrong kind of wealth; with too many of one kind and not enough of another, he didn't have what he needed to build any of his reserve ships.

On the next turn, Redshirt finally got his mining operation into high gear, and the Dauntless turned for home with full holds. The Liberty saw the Space Lady's Antaeus siphon off all the resources from the nearest asteroid, so Mike's ship left that hunk of rock to mine the most remote asteroid. His fighters stayed in the center of the battle space, so they'd be ready in case the shooting started. All they got was pod damage from an asteroid that bumped into the squadron leader. The Avenger's Conqueror also took an asteroid hit and lost a pod. Aimee's Promethean made a long loop around the battle space and loaded up the few microids that orbited outside the asteroids, then turned for home.

That's when the fun began. Captain Redshirt's fighters moved to cut off the Promethean from her home base. "I want the resources on your ship," Mike explained. The Space Lady offered to make a deal — she would trade him the resources he wanted if he didn't blow her up. "Deal," he nodded. "But I'll shoot all your pods off so you can't be a threat to me." This didn't seem to bother her. The Dauntless docked with the big Venusian cruiser and they swapped resources. Then Mike's ships all opened fire in a friendly way. It took three turns to finally break through the Space Lady's shields and armored hull, but they finally left the Promethean disarmed and podless. For some reason, this didn't bother her; she was still willing to make deals for resources with her attacker.

The Avenger was trying to make a similar deal for the right resources. But his ships had loaded up and returned so quickly that all his resources were at his home asteroid, instead of on ships where they could dock and trade. The Enigma went back and picked up some minerals in hopes of swapping some with the Space Lady, while the Conqueror stayed in space, following the Heartsblood in search of adventure. The Space Lady sent the Antaeus home and cashed in her resources to buy the big Martian cruiser Vengeance, the first reserve ship to enter the battle.

Captain Redshirt carefully stayed out of the cluster of ships from the other two admirals. He got both his cruisers home, and used his minerals to buy the rocketship Orion and the Omega VII fighter squadron, which both headed for the center of the map. The Space Lady and the Avenger got their fleets quite tangled up with each other. Her new Vengeance was trying to join this tangle, but in a totally unexpected development, it went flying up off the battle space. (She'd gotten it tangled up in her hair instead.)

Once that hair-raising maneuver had been straightened out, the Vengeance found itself targeted by the Heartsblood, whose six attack pods shot away two of Aimee's four pods. In frustration, she rammed the damaged Conqueror, but didn't have enough action points to dock with it. The next thing they knew, the nearby asteroid had shifted in its orbit and collided with both Vengeance and Conqueror, leaving them with only one pod each.

The Avenger initiated the first boarding wave, and it was the last. Luck was not on his side, and the Conqueror lost its last pod. The Space Lady chose to salvage the enemy ship for its resource value; the Vengeance turned and ran for home. With only one pod remaining, it was a ripe target for the Heartsblood.

That's when Captain Redshirt intervened. He still had not fired a shot, but his rocketship and six fighters made a long blockade line between the angry Heartsblood and the fleeing Vengeance, ensuring that the Space Lady would get home safely. Why did he do this? Probably because he's a sucker for the space dames. Anyway, she got her damaged cruiser home, and used the resources to obtain a flying saucer, the Zener's Secret.

She had some leftover resources, and Jake still wanted to make a trade, even though the two fleets had just finished shooting at each other. She agreed in principle, and offered to throw in an additional resource if the Avenger would hang his head and say "Sowwy." Jake must have really, really wanted that resource, or maybe Mike isn't the only one who's a sucker for space dames. Either way, he hung his head and said "Sowwy," and got his extra resource. "He's so cute when he does that!" she grinned. He used his resources to commission the big Death's Head.

Captain Redshirt had finished his resource loading, and wound up with just enough goodies to launch his last reserve ship, the Eagle. Now he had nothing to gain by being peaceful, and it was just a question of who he'd attack first. The Space Lady of Death made this an easy decision by using the Zener's Secret to open fire on the Delta IV fighters. "I want some fun," she reasoned. The Rebel fighter dodged her first shot, but the second hit and removed the fighter's one remaining pod. Her other ship, the Barrage, tried and failed to hit another fighter.

We knew our time was running short, and it was time for the usual panicky end-of-game maneuvers. The Avenger's Enigma carefully threaded through the space between ships to load a precious resource from the Death's Head and just barely get it home in time to launch the heavily-armed Andromache. That ship wouldn't get into the battle in time. But the Heartsblood would take some revenge on Aimee by blasting her Antaeus into space dust. As if that wasn't punishment enough, Mike's ships turned their many lasers on her fleet, shredding the Zener's Secret. He had armed his fighters with nothing but laser pods, and they took a deadly toll; he had plenty of shots left after the Secret exploded. As he looked for another target, he was startled when she walked up behind him, inhaled, and announced, "You smell pretty!" This didn't throw his gunners' aim off too badly, as they inflicted some damage on the Barrage as well.

The battle had to be called off at this point, due to the lateness of the hour. We chose a winner based on the largest number of pods still functioning. Captain Redshirt ran away with 25 pods on 6 ships, followed by the Avenger with 16 on four ships, and the Space Lady of Death with six pods on two ships.

Her misfortune was to get into a fight with both enemies at the same time; as a result, her ships got caught in a vise between two angry fleets. Mike had followed the ages-old strategy of letting his enemies get into a fight with each other, then moving in when they were weakened by battle damage so he could own the battlefield. This was the first time he, or anyone else, has used Rebel ships, and they performed well. The Space Lady's fleet served her well in rounding up resources, but lacked fighting power. The Avenger's ships were good at both, but his reserve ships were expensive in terms of resources, so he couldn't get most of his back-up ships into the fray in time.

Cruisers seem to be the best kind of ship in this game; their armored hulls make them extra-hard to hit, and they're just as good at fighting and resource gathering as the smaller rocketships. Fighters are also a good value — you get plenty of pods for the points, and their ability to dodge one hit per turn (and the fact that there's more than one of them) makes them even harder to knock out than a cruiser. Too bad they can't load resources, too.

Our battles seem to follow the pattern of "everybody gathers resources and is nice to each other, then as soon as the resources are gone, the shooting starts." Captain Redshirt is wondering what would happen if he provides even more resources — would the violence ever start? Or maybe things would be more interesting if he just comes out shooting next time.

Message transmitted on Fifteen July,
Two Thousand Oh-Nine AD,
by Captain Redshirt

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