Temporal Cold War OP3

Welcome back for the last report in the Temporal Cold War Series!

Last weekend the battle lines were drawn and once more brave souls were called upon to wage war among the stars...

Four attendees so a nice three games each.

This particular scenario recreated the battle to destroy Sphere 41 in the Delphic Expanse.  Automatic damage or crew discard each turn for eight turns, during which time you had to destroy the sphere or all ships are destoyed.

I had to amend my usual list for this one - out went the Hidekis and in came the Scimitar - full list was as follows:

Scimitar [38]
- Donatra 6 (Captain) [4]
- Secondary Shields [6]
Ship Total: 48 SP

4th Division Battleship [36]
- Jean-Luc Picard 9 (Captain) [7]
- Aft Weapons Array [4]
Ship Total: 47 SP

Dominion Starship (Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser) [32]
- Gelnon 5 (Captain) [3]
Ship Total: 35 SP

Fleet Total: 130 SP

Quite an upgrade light fleet, I was hoping that the shields would be enough of a barrier to keep me alive long enough to finish off the opposing fleets.

Rule 1: No plan survives contact with the enemy...

Game 1 vs Assimilated Borg Vessels.

Yeah, my shields can't really outlast shields that regenerate. I didn't manage to get photos of the full lists this time around but let's just say that as they went on the board my inner child wanted to hide under the sheets, then started hearing the usual nightmare fodder of "Resistance is futile" and whirring mechanical sounds...

Both fleets set up in opposite corners of the board and as my shields started to disintegrate around me I realised I was in trouble from the start.

My fleet started to close on the objective in the middle and started pouring fire into it:

Unfortunately my opponents' ships ended up in a far better position than I to finish it off a couple of turns in - here is a shot of them closing in:

After the objective was destroyed and the fleets closed a heavy barrage of shots from the Galaxy and Galor managed to finish off the Cruiser, in return the Battleship and the Scimitar exacted revenge and finished off the Galaxy.

With time quickly running out the Scimitar was poised in an excellent position but unfortunately her aim was off and the Borg ships managed to destroy the Battleship literally in the final action of the game.

The survivors:

So, the first game was a loss but a close one and hard fought by both fleets.

Game 2 vs Federation.

Not too many photos of this one, I was against my usual Romulan playing opponent who had chosen to ditch them for this OP.  This was a tough game.

The Voyager, Equinox and the Prometheus, all outfitted with unbelievably tough upgrades, both shield and hull ones:

Also, the beardy ones: Riker and Sisko (more on this in a later report)...

I took a different approach to this one, and immediately went for the objective, taking it out on the second turn which effectively turned this into a straight up battle.

Both fleets closed slowly, trading shots until they were within point-blank range.

The Voyager and Prometheus managed to fell the Cruiser, in an apparent fit of vengeance for past actions (remember the one shot on the Scimitar from the Wrath of Khan report?) and in return the Battleship and Scimitar hammered the Equinox and Prometheus but not quite doing enough to finish them.

The following turn the Battleship and the Prometheus both reached the end of their respective roads, leaving the Scimitar as the sole remaining ship of my fleet, facing the Equinox and Voyager alone.

Time was running short and I knew that I had to do something drastic if I had any hope of winning this fight - I cloaked the Scimitar and chose my target: Equinox.

Two turns later the Voyager was out of range of the Scimitar and thanks to my decision to cloak, a sensor echo put me in range one of the Equinox.  In the last exchange of fire in the game, the Scimitar just managed to destroy the Equinox, giving me a very close win.

This Federation fleet was my toughest game this tournament - the build worked perfectly and even though I did win this one, it was by the skin of my teeth and all credit to my opponent I was on the ropes for the majority of the game.

Game 3 vs Mixed Starter Set.

No photos here unfortunately, but it's also a very quick report!  High skill captains and very bad rolls on my part (me making an inexplicable error early on) saw my fleet wiped off the table by turn 5.  The Scimitar fell first, followed closely by the Cruiser.  In my haste to run away with the Battleship I flew too close to the edge and then in the next turn, straight off it.

Epic failure on my part.

The more entertaining game of round 3 was happening on the other table, with the regenerative Borg vs the plucky Federation...

It ended up with the Federation fleet running away from the Borg:

The Borg were left to finish off the objective and not a moment too soon, it was destroyed in the last turn before time was called, giving a very low scoring win to the Borg.

It's a testament to how well built both of these fleets were that not a single ship from either side was lost...

So, all in all, one win and two losses.  The first two games could have gone either way both being right down to the wire.  The third game I'll put down to bad luck and judgement on my part and my opponent playing his fleet exceptionally well.

Next time will be the free for all three player game we had after the tournament!