The result was a rather disgusting twenty-nil loss - not the best result to head into the tournament with! These losses prevented me from controlling the sky and the ground was lost to some hideous close combat rolls, as well as a very accurate defence laser Adam dropped. It was later, at home in bed, that I remembered he was one a different orbital layer and should have never been touched. The following turn I made almost the opposite mistake - my Battlecruiser moved into a higher orbital layer, played the Orbital Targeting Matrix and caused another chain reaction that finished off one of my New Cairo-class Light Cruisers and then engulfed my Battlecruiser - leading to massive chain of crippling damage that destroyed him! The worst part was this decision was that I had an Orbital Targeting Matrix Command Card in my hand - I could have easily moved the Taipei's above their targets and avoided the ensuing explosion, but chose not to play it.
I played poorly, making two big mistakes that cost me hugely - first pushing the Taipei's way too close to an Ikarus and Orion, destroying them and causing a chain reaction that obliterated all of the Taipei's. The third game was a simple Take And Hold, with Adam using the list that he would run at the tournament and myself with the same as before. This was the final nail in the coffin for the Bellerophon in Adam's mind, and he did not run one for his final tournament list. This game was a solid win for me - my first against Adam! His fleet was led by the Bellerophon and the Battleship, which both suffered from poor dice and failed to cause much damage, while the rest of his fleet was overwhelmed. This played a crucial part in the game, ripping ships from both sides from the sky - Bulk Landers, Battlecruisers, and even crippling Adam's brand new Battleship. The second practise game was Defence Grid, which we mistakenly played with the full-strength Burnthrough Laser armament ( now amended to be less game-breaking). The game went well and the result was a Draw, but we were playing late in the evening and only managed four turns - had we continued playing I think it would have gone his way. The first practise game was a Mixed Engagement, with Adam running a nasty list featuring eleven Launch Assets ( courtesy of a Priam, Bellerophon and three Andromeda). We would see how this combination worked against some new opponents. I also favour the Burnthrough Lasers - though the Taipei's bring some shots when required. I play a lot of games against Adam and his PHR and that demanded protection from Launch Assets - hence the two Carriers and two Aegis Frigates. I did not run any Madrid-class Cruisers, something I would like to have, but there were simply not enough points. Nothing I didn't see in other UCM fleets present. The rest of the fleet is pretty standard for UCM - two Carriers, an Avalon-lass Battlecruiser, some New Cairo-class Light Cruisers, four Santiagos and half a dozen Strike Carriers. Three Taipei's have the edge here - and this paid off several times! The amount of firepower they throw out make it worthwhile to me. I simply could not afford that many without dropping something important, like a Jakarta or New Orleans, and frankly most players will be running a small Battle Group of Frigates or Corvettes, with a Strategy Rating of Four. Thoughts from other players focus on the lack of Lima-class Detector Frigates and the size of the squadron of Taipei-class Missile Frigates - four seems to be fashion. I developed a fleetlist and used it for all three practise games, while Adam used three different builds and settled on the last one for his tournament list ( admittedly, he had submitted this list before our last practise game, so kudos to him for playing blind!).Īvalon-class Battlecruiser ( Level Four Admiral incl. Before this we had played nine or ten games from Starter Box up to 999pts.
These would be our first games at 1,250pts - time for a real game of Dropfleet. There are not many players in our area, and frankly we are both pretty desperate for some games! This tournament would be the perfect antidote.Īdam and I played three practice missions before the tournament. Not a relaxing weekend away! In the end we bit the bullet and bought some tickets. The decision to go to the tournament was made about a month before - we had debated this as Worcester is a long way from where we live, we could not go up the night before due to other commitments, and we would probably have to get up at some ungodly hour of the morning, drive for three hours and then drive back for three hours afterward.
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