Battlestar Galactica – the 33 Campaign, a series of Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles massive events inspired by “33”, the first episode of the Reimagined series, continues to "jump" at all major shows Ares is attending in 2019 - but not only there! One contribution comes from Canberra, Australia. There, thanks to the organizer Zoe Ellen Brain, a spin-off scenario was played at Wintercon and Gamma Con. The "They were expendables" scenario was set in an asteroid field where a tanker detachment had been sent to gather fuel - and divert some of the Cylon fleet. Here follows her report of the action from July 20th at WinterCon.

Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles participation game at Wintercon 2019.

Holding a games convention on the weekend of the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing, when the city played a major role in the original so there are free films, free talks by astronauts, live streams at the tracking stations of the original signals, and a plethora of lectures, presentations and other free events is a guarantee for reduced attendance.

However, the CGS - Canberra Games Society - had no choice. Booking the venue has to be done 6-12 months in advance, and there are no free slots available to move to. By being a regular, annual event from a reliable organisation that tidies up afterwards, the CGS gets a discount on hiring the venue that makes both Wintercon and Cancon financially viable for a group with only about 100 paying members.

Saturday attendance was about half normal. Sunday was so moribund there wasn't even a coffee stall open, and while there were still hundreds of gamers playing in competition events, the hundreds of visitors normally present for participation games were completely absent.

The good news is that under those circumstances, BFG did the best of all the participation games, with 8 players, 6 simultaneously. 3&3 the next day only had 5, 4 simultaneously, but that was still 5 more than any of the other games.

The BFG game lasted 5 hours, and that wasn't because play was slow, quite the contrary. New players picked it up quickly, due to the 1-page summaries we'd printed out and laminated, similar to the Cancon rules for WGF. Action was fast if not furious, as players dodged and evaded.

3&3 had many smaller games rather than the one long campaign one, 3 against Mk 1 tripods, 2 against a Mk 2.

Prologue

An asteroid field. A decoy ship with a dodgy ftl drive that can't keep up with the fleet. Clapped out Vipers not even good for spare parts.

They Were Expendable: a scenario where keeping the Cylons occupied for a while and taking as many out as you can before you have to eject is the best that can be hoped for.

A SAR Raptor is on its way though. Can the Colonials keep the Cylons off long enough for it to rescue the ejected pilots?

Colonial Briefing:

Background

We've jumped a long way from the main fleet. Both the old mining station and abandoned research post we visited in the two previous jumps had Cylons present, they are keeping patrols out to make sure we can't scavenge supplies. So far, our ****y FTL drive has behaved well though, so we escaped before they could summon reinforcements, and before we had to deploy our Vipers.

The more raiders they have scattered in different systems, the fewer there are to attack the fleet. Galactica is close to being overwhelmed, so the more we can decoy ; and destroy if possible ; the better.

Sitrep

We had hoped this latest jump would take us beyond FTL range of the Cylons. As you know, our hopes were dashed, and a single Cylon of a type not seen before jumped out to give the alarm as soon as we jumped in. Intel guesses that the craft was some kind of long range "heavy" raider, but we can expect Cylons of the usual type to arrive in force shortly.

Vipers and Raiders in action.

Our FTL drive needs repair, it's already done better than we'd hoped, and it will be an hour before it can spool up.

It is likely that we will have to deploy our Vipers.

Pilots are reminded that battle shorts have been wired open, these craft are NOT repeat NOT spaceworthy, and our crew chiefs cannot guarantee they won't fail catastrophically after more than an hour of use. As they are magnetically clamped to the ship, there are no landing facilities available anyway. Pilots must eject after completing their mission, to be picked up by our assigned Raptor.

In short, these are piles of junk, composed of time expired parts not worth salvaging. Regardless of what happens, this is their last mission.

The mission is to decoy as many Cylons as possible away from their assigned patrol systems, and to destroy as many as possible. The Vipers are expendable, you pilots are not. Come home safe if you can, and keep the Cylons away from the ship. Good luck and Good hunting.

Cylon Briefing

Background

As we feared, Admiral Adama is sending detached ships out to find safe places to hide, and to gather isolated colonists, supplies and spare parts. We have had to heavily dilute our forces pursuing the human fleet to cover these systems.

The further these detachments operate from the main fleet, the thinner is our coverage.

We are now operating at the extreme limits of our range. Raiders have enough fuel to FTL in if summoned, but not to make any further jumps. They must await refueling by Heavy Raider.

Importantly the Resurrection Ship is too far away to operate. Death is permanent.

Sitrep

A Heavy Raider has just located one of these detached human ships in sector ZZ plural 9 Alpha. Raiders nearby are to converge on this position and destroy the ship. Resistance is predicted to be light, and composed entirely of a few Raptors at most.

If Vipers are detected, then we know the Battlestar Pegasus is in the vicinity, and Base Stars will be detached to deal with it. In this case, the Vipers are a priority target. Kill them but remember Death is Permanent out here, and you will be needed to attack the main human fleet.

Bridge of the Canis Major

"DREDIS reports multiple hostiles jumping in."

"Frack. I suppose it was too much to hope for that we'd get away again. What's the status on the FTL drive?"

"Nearly repaired, but it will be three hours to complete the testing.."

"We don't have that long. How much time before we can spool up without testing?"

"Half that"

"Make it an hour, no matter what it takes, battle short if need be. How many of those piles of junk we have attached are spaceworthy?"

"Spaceworthy??? None. But we currently have three able to detach without blowing up, and pilots in them."

"Launch 2 of them. And may the gods go with them."

"Downer, Boomerang, launch immediately. We have 2, no, 3 Cylons incoming"

"BANSHEE, launch. Frack that third Cylon, he was hidden by the asteroids. Too bad he didn't jump into one."

Comms traffic, sector ZZ plural 9 alpha

"He got one! Downer just got one!

"Canis Actual : Comm discipline, Boomerang, there's still two out there"

"Splash one bogie"

"We'll share that one, Banshee, you blew his head off. "

"Fine by me Downer. Is that blood? One more to go. 3 vs 1, Odds I like"

.. "Frack! I'm hit! Two more jumped in!"

"Downer, EJECT! Whew, he got out."

"Oh frack, he's going too fast for pickup.. and I've taken damage"

"Hang in there Boomerang, break left and hit him..YES! Good ki...."

《static》

"Captain, FTL online and spooling up"

"Captain, we have three rescue beacons. I'm sorry, all Vipers lost"

"Jump now and hope the Raptor rescues them"

Epilogue

"We nearly had him..."

"You evaded 2 Cylons, rescued 2 pilots, and brought Downer's body home. Don't beat yourself up, it was an impossible rescue you nearly pulled off."

"Was it worth it? 3 for 3? We can't afford that."

"3 for 1. Two pilots rescued, their ships were junk, and that's not 3 but 5 Cylons that won't be attacking Galactica. 3 killed, 2 decoyed. No damage to the ship. Ask the two pilots in the back. I'd call it a win."

The score by the end of Wintercon session was:

  • No damage to ship.
  • 5 Cylons decoyed from attack on main fleet.
  • 3 of those destroyed.
  • 3 scrap Vipers destroyed
  • 1 colonial pilot lost

Ares thanks Zoe for the great support. Stay tuned for the upcoming Gamma Con report, and follow the outcome of the Cylon versus Colonials war at Battlestar Galactica – 33 Campaign's page.

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