February Sci Fi Month: Engagement at Paulus' Star

"Contact!  Make that 4 Snake class frigates entering from Slither jump point. Lasers are charged and their torpedo flashes are trying to connect."

"Go to General Quarters!" Activate Electron screen. Weapons get a targeting solution on lead enemy frigate. Send all information to Davout command link signature Boone."
"Transponder identifies lead frigate as Star Scourge, followed by Vicious, Pestilence and Stinger. Marking targets now."

"All ships this is the Commodore.  Execute as planned.  Do not let those ships pass the alpha line. The Daniel Boone will take the lead on the right with Davout - Richthofen and Xerxes take the left.

 The Daniel Boone and Marshal Davout move to take on the Star Scourge, Vicious, Pestilence and Stinger.

  The Daniel Boone prepares to fire missiles and all laser cannons.

The Marshal Davout accelerates to catch up as the deployment of the Slither frigates had it further behind the Boone.

 The Richthofen (yes the one in red!)and the Xerxes advance in an attempt to flank the Slither ships.

The SAV Stinger turns toward the threat posed by Xerxes and Richthofen.

Surprise you slithering evil space snakes.  The Cruiser Squadron consisting of the Inazuma, Ochakov and Rodger Young fire up their reactors and become visible.

 The Boone takes multiple hits damaging its engines and torpedo batteries.

 More hits and damage as the Davout tries to draw the fire and block the now critically damaged Boone.  The speed of the Slither frigates in close action is making the difference,

The Davout blocks a salvo of missiles from the Star Scourge with anti-missile defenses and gets some good, but not decisive laser hits on the Pestilence.

 Ships are engaged on the other flank as the Vicious and the Stinger mix it up with Xerxes and Richthofen.  Missiles and laser fire are exchanged but no serious hits on either side.

 Pweh, Pweh. Laser bolts and explosions!

"Das soll dock wohl ein Scherz sein!" states the captain of the Richthofen.

 Contact!  Enemy battleship SAV Doomfist!

The Boone explodes under concentrated laser cannon fire.

 The Richthofen attempts to slow down the Doomfist but is overwhelmed by its defenses and firepower.

"Entschuldigen Sie. Wo sind die Kreuser, die uns helfen sollen?"

 Now that systems are fully charged, the cruiser Inazuma heads to assist the Davout and Xerxes.

 The Inazuma kamon adorns the side of the ship.

The Rodger Young and Ochakov move as fast as their cruiser reactors will allow them - but go too fast and they may overshoot the enemy battleship when it is time to maneuver.

 The Davout and Xerxes counterattack.

 The quick action of the Davout and Xerxes allows the Richthofen to make its escape.

 BOOM!  The SAV Pestilence never saw it coming from the Inazuma.

 The counterattack continues on the right flank as the Davout, Xerxes and Inazuma hammer the Star Scourge.

 The cruisers start to move in on the Doomfist.

 The Richthofen continues to move out of the danger zone (hey, I need those victory points!)

 The SAV Stinger hits the wounded Ochakov while it returns fire along with the Rodger Young on the Doomfist.

 The Stinger swiftly turns to engage the Davout and Xerxes . . .

  . . . and that does not work out for the Stinger so well.

 With the loss of it's escorts, the Doomfist has too many targets and is taking multiple hits from the Rodger Young and the Inazuma.

 And in for the kill . . .

 BOOM!

 One last attempt on the Ochakov by the Vicious.

 The Star Scourge attempts to run from Davout and Xerxes.

 The Vicious runs into a situation it cannot handle.

 The SAV Vicious makes a run for right into the targeting array of the the Richthofen.

Cool.  A green explosion and that's the game!

 The valiant Richthofen.

 Inazuma sends additional damage control teams to the Ochakov.

The Commodore's flagship.

Our space battle was fought with the oldie but goodie Star Frontiers: Knight Hawks.  Star Frontiers was published by TSR Games, the same folks that brought you the original Dungeons and Dragons.  Designed as a Sci Fi Dungeons and Dragons, the best part for me was when they added Star Frontiers: Knight Hawks which provided rules for a fast moving boardgame of ship to ship space combat.  

No knowledge of Star Frontiers is needed as it was a standalone game with basic rules, advanced rules, a campaign set of rules, maps, counters, etc.  It does require some record keeping for damage but it is not burdensome and is an extremely fun game to play with miniatures.

 Campaign Map.

Counters and hex map for the game.