Merchant shipping in Sector 235 has been experiencing heightened pirate activity for several weeks now. Starfleet has placed several ships within the sector to hunt for the culprit. Earth Starfleet ship Enterprise (NX-01) is on patrol when it picks up a distress signal from the freighter Jervis Bay. Proceeding to the last reported location of the Jervis Bay, Enterprise finds her adrift but surprisingly in good condition.
Set-up
Open space non-floating map. The Jervis Bay is located within a 12 inch circle in the middle of the table. Enterprise enters from its deployment zone on the right side of the table. Expecting pirates, it has polarised its hull plating and armed its phase cannons but not its photonic torpedoes.
Special Rules
The Jervis Bay player must do everything they can to prevent their shields being destroyed and so revealing who they are. The Jervis Bay uses special stats due to the nature of the ship (keep an eye out for a future post for ship stat's).
House Rule
Trawling through other blog sites, I have noticed that one thing that comes up in discussions regarding ACTA Star Fleet is the problem with the Reload special action rule. The best suggestion I have seen to overcome this issue is to redefine the Reload rule as meaning that a weapon takes one turn to reload (re-energise etc) rather than requiring a Special Action. So in effect, the weapon becomes a Slow Reloading type of weapon rather than requiring a Special Action to load up the weapon. So in this scenario, the Reload rule indicates slow reloading. Slow Reloading means that the weapon can only be fired every other turn. So if you fire the weapon on Turn 2, you can't fire it again until Turn 4.
TURN 1
Jervis Bay gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
Enterprise moves in to rescue the crew of the Jervis Bay.
The Jervis Bay's engines are not active, but it rotates 45 degrees to face the Enterprise.
Attack Phase
No action at this time.
End Phase
No action at this time.
TURN 2
Enterprise gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
The freighter remains motionless, while the Enterprise closes in on the Jervis Bay.
Attack Phase
No action at this time.
End Phase
No action at this time.
TURN 3
Jervis Bay gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
The freighter remains motionless, while the Enterprise closes in on the Jervis Bay.
Attack Phase
The Jervis opens fire on the Enterprise, which is at long range, scoring 3 hits on its shields. Due to the Multihit 2 nature of the Jervis' disruptors, Enterprise takes a total of six shields hits.
Enterprise returns fire with its forward phase cannons doing 1 point of shield damage.
End Phase
The Jervis uses its special ability to repair the point of damage to its shield.
TURN 4
Enterprise gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
The freighter's engine burst's in to life and the vessel moves past the Enterprise and turns into position to attack them from behind. However the Enterprise outmanoeuvres the Jervis to get behind it instead.
The Enterprise opens fire with a pulse cannon and a photonic torpedo. But both miss the Jervis. The Enterprise is outside of the Jervis fire arc and so doesn't return fire.
End Phase
Enterprise begins reload of its F/S photonic torpedo.
TURN 5
Jervis Bay gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
The freighter's agility and turn rate means that it manoeuvres into the Enterprise aft.
The Jervis opens fire causing 4 hits on the Enterprise energised hull plating (i.e. shields). Enterprise returns fire with its aft pulse cannon and torpedo. The photonic torpedo misses, but the cannon manages to score a shield hit.
End Phase
Enterprise begins reload of its AH photonic torpedo. The Jervis repairs the lost shield point.
TURN 6
Enterprise gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
Again the Jervis agility and turn rate comes in to play as it manoeuvres in a circle to come almost back to where they were before behind the Enterprise aft. However, the Enterprise manages to manoeuvre round also to put the Jervis in their forward arc.
The Enterprise fires its forward pulse cannons and torpedoes. One torp and cannon miss, but the other cannon hits the Jervis shields (doing one point of damage) and the other torp passes through the shield. The hit causes two hull damage (due to the Multihit 2 nature of the torp) and a level 2 critical hit to the Dilithium Chamber (due to the torp's Devastating +1 nature).
The critical hit means that a total of 10 points of shields are lost on the Jervis, leaving it with only 3 shields. The critical also sees another point of damage lost, leaving the Jervis with only 3 damage points (one more damage and it will be crippled!). The critical hit on the Jervis also means that it is restricted to a total of 10 movement and it looses its Armoured trait after checking for a random trait loss. In addition, the damage Escalates next turn.
The Jervis retaliates with 3 hits on the Enterprise, one of which bypass the shields to do 2 points of damage due to the Multihit 2 nature of its disruptors. Enterprise has only one shield point left and a number of solid hits have been taken.
End Phase
Enterprise begins reload of its F,P,S photonic torpedos. The Jervis however must maintain its secrets at all costs, taking them to the grave if need be. So it repairs a lost shield point, giving it a total of 4 shields. Checking for repair to its critical hit with its "crew quality" of 4, the Jervis gets a 9 for its repair score. The Jervis manages to reduce its critical damage to the Dilithium Chamber to level 1, regaining its Armoured trait that it lost and preventing any escalation next turn.
TURN 7
Jervis Bay gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
Again the Jervis agility and turn rate out manoeuvres the Enterprise with the Jervis moving in behind the Enterprise.
The Jervis unleashes another brutal attack with 3 of its disruptors hitting Enterprise, two of which bypass her shields. The Enterprises shields go down as there was only one point left on her shields. Mercifully for the Enterprises crew, the remaining hits slam into the bulkhead doing no further damage.
The Enterprise returns fire with its aft phase cannon and torpedo. The cannon missing. But the photonic torpedo slams past the Jervis shielding doing a Solid Hit for 2 points (being a Multihit 2 weapon).
The Jervis Bay has now been crippled and only has 1 damage point left. Checking for the effects of being crippled, the Jervis looses its Agile and Armoured traits but thankfully not its other two traits.
End Phase
The stress is too much on the Jervis' automatic repair system on the Jervis Bay as the Dylithium Chamber critical hit repair roll fails, leaving it at a Level 1 Critical Hit. Enterprise meanwhile begins reloading of the aft torpedo, and reloading for the forward torpedos is finished.
TURN 8
Enterprise gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
Having suffered serious damage, the Jervis now wants to begin an escape plan. Ordering a "Close Blast Doors" Special Action, it makes a turn away from Enterprise. Being crippled though, Jervis is limited to six inches movement. Fortunately it still manages to retain its Agile trait making a hard turn to put some distance between it and the Enterprise.
Enterprise is having non of this and the captain orders the crew to get hot on the heels of the Jervis. Making a turn every chance they can, Enterprise gets the Jervis back in its forward sights.
Attack Phase
The Enterprise opens up with 2 phase cannons and 2 torpedoes, but only one cannot hits its mark, impacting on the Jervis shields. The Jervis has to forgo using its weapons due to its Close Blast Doors Special Action. However Enterprise is out of its weapons arc anyway. Jervis is getting close to the loss of its shields but still has a few points left.
End Phase
Enterprise begins reload of its forward torpedoes and completes reload of its aft torpedo.
TURN 9
Jervis Bay gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
Enterprise moves across the Jervis port to starboard side so as to move its aft weapons into range.
But the Jervis surprises the Enterprise by making a hard turn and breaking for its baseline to escape.
"So long suckers!"
Attack PhaseJervis Bay's weapons are out of arc and so cannot fire at this time. Enterprise fires their aft pulse cannon and torpedo but both miss.
End Phase
Enterprise begins reload of its aft torpedo and finishes loading its two forward torpedoes. Jervis Bay manages to repair the critical hit to its Dilithium Chamber, but being crippled can no longer repair shields or damage during the scenario.
TURN 10
Jervis Bay gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
Enterprise comes about to get the Jervis in their forward arc.
The crippled Jervis hobbles towards its table edge and escape and orders Close Blast Doors again as a special order.
Attack Phase
Jervis Bay's weapons are offline again, a sacrifice for Closing Blast Doors. Enterprise again opens up with both forward cannons and torpedoes but once again only hits with one cannon. Clearly Jervis agility is causing problems for the torpedoes guidance systems.
End Phase
Enterprise begins reload of forward torps and completes reload of aft torp.
TURN 11
Jervis Bay gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
Enterprise moves into prime position to hit Jervis.
Jervis still heads for its table edge and escape, again ordering Close Blast Doors.
Attack Phase
Jervis Bay's weapons again are offline due to Close Blast Doors. Enterprise fires with both cannons doing 2 more points on the Jervis shields. Jervis shields are not desperately low.
End Phase
Enterprise finishes loading of its forward torpedoes.
TURN 12
Enterprise gains the initiative.
Movement Phase
Jervis moves again to its table edge in a desperate attempt to escape. Enterprise closes to within 2 inches of Jervis gaining Killzone range for its cannons.
Attack Phase
Jervis Bay's weapons are again offline. Enterprise unleashes its two forward cannons and both forward torpedoes. Closing Blast Doors is not enough to save the Jervis Bay. Suffering another critical hit to its Dylithium Chamber, Jervis shields fail and the ship's multispectral emitters fail revealing the true nature of the "Jervis Bay."
The revelation that the Jervis Bay is in fact a Romulan Drone Ship comes as a surprise to Enterprise. However, the Enterprise weapons have inflicted enough damage to reduce Jervis to 0 damage.
End Phase
Checking the results for the stricken nature of the Jervis Bay, the ship is destroyed as it breaks apart from the damage it received from Enterprise.
Concluding Thoughts
This was the first time that I have had a chance to play ACTA Star Fleet and I was surprise by how easy and enjoyable it is to play. With the changing of the Reload rule, the game played very well and the Enterprise wasn't crippled every time it needed to reload its torpedoes.
Its a very quick turn around game, especially with just two ships. One of the first wargames I ever played was Star Fleet Battles and you needed a degree in accounting and mathematics just to play the game. Also the rule books just kept getting larger and larger till they are now about the size of a standard phone book. ACTA Star Fleet however is so much simpler, quicker and far more enjoyable.
The plan is to return to this era of Star Trek in future for more ACTA Star Fleet.
