The Battle Of Kitchenus Four

With Desert Wars rapidly approaching I decided that in addition to reassembling and painting my Centauri fleet I should probably brush up on the rules a bit too.  Of course one of the things that I don't currently have is an appropriate space gaming surface so welcome to the little mentioned system of Kitchenus!

Yeah, when all else fails its time to just clear off the table and throw down some minis!  For this battle I decided to go with the appropriately named Call To Arms scenario which features two fleets meeting head to head in empty expanse of deep space to duke it out.

With the fleets deployed it was time to roll for initiative for turn one.  The Centauri (aka the sneaky bastards) won and it was time to begin the assault.  Speeding forward the Centauri lined up the the Centurion and one of the Vorchans against the T'Loth while the other Vorchan headed straight for one of the Ka'Tac destroyers.  The movement phase ended with the Narn fighters moving forward to support their respective ships.

The Centurion opens fire first but is only able to get range on the T'Loth with its matter cannon.  Unfortunately the supporting Frazi fighters are able to provide enough interference to protect the T'Loth from any damage.  The return fire proves to be much more devastating as the T'Loth's plasma cannons rip into the Centurion's hull and also the bridge!  Meanwhile the Vorchan on the right lets loose volley after volley of cannon fire into the Ka'Toc facing it and inflicts a devastating amount of damage, leaving the ship crippled but still in the fight.

The Ka'Toc on the left opens fire on the Vorchan it is facing but only manages to inflict minor damage while the Vorchan that was targeted opens fire on the T'Loth.  The hail of fire damages the giant warship and also temporarily disables the fire control to the port side of the vessel, creating a potential blind spot that might be exploited next turn.

Stunned by the Centauri betrayal (though you'd think they'd know better by now) the Narn again loose the initiative roll to the Centauri again and this time are forced to move first.

The crippled Ka'Toc on the right limps forward while the Vorchan on the same side swings around to try to exploit the blind spot on the T'Loth.  The captain of the T'Loth responds by declaring the All Stop! special action which leaves the Vorchan just inside the forward arc.  The Centurion edges slightly forward to get range with the rest of its arsenal but leaves itself open to the undamaged Ka'Toc on the left that sweeps around to get a bearing on it.  Finally the last Vorchan moves in close to the T'Loth while the Frazi fighters from the two Narn destroyers move to engage the Vorchans.

After trading some minor salvos, the Vorchan on the left is able to inflict a devstating blow to the T'Loth, critically damaging its reactors and taking its starboard weapon offline!  Now blind on both sides, the T'Loth tried to direct fire against the Centurion and the other Vorchan but only managed to inflict some minor damage.  The opposite was not true however as the Centurion let loose a devastating volley in return.  The already damaged reactors are again ravaged which resulted in an implosion ripping apart a portion of the ship.  Fires then broke out causing even more chaos on the rapidly dying vessel.  As a final touch, the Centurion opened fire on the crippled Ka'Toc and annihilated it.

With chaos reigning, the Narn again loose the initiative as we head into turn three.  At this point there is some minor maneuvering but with the T'Loth crippled and the Ka'Toc damaged the outcome of this battle is pretty easy to see at this point.

All and all, this little scenario was a good refresher and it definitely reminded me why I enjoyed this game so much; it's very cinematic.  The way that the mechanics work especially for combat really capture the feel of the Babylon 5 universe.  From the slicing beam weapons to the rapid fire banks of pulse weapons, the rules really do a great job recreating all of it.  Unfortunately this version of Call To Arms is no longer available but Mongoose recently released their Star Fleet version as a joint venture with Amarillo Design Bureau.  That's right, its Star Fleet Battles made easy!  I haven't had a chance to try this ruleset out yet but maybe I'll take a look at Jason's copy of the rulebook when I have some down time.  Then I'll need to buy more miniatures, maybe get some space terrain...  I'll have to work on that.  Until next time...