Following the first part of the Battlestar Galactica – the 33 Campaign spin-off scenario "They were expendables", played at at Wintercon 2019, the action continued two weeks later at Gamma Con, in Canberra, Australia. Here follows the after action report by the organizer Zoe Ellen Brain.

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 pilots?

Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles - 33 Campaign

Episode 2: Going Home

Sitrep

We now have the data Admiral Adama required. After a far too exciting 3rd jump, our 4th jump shook off the Cylons.

If the fleet with Galactica splits into different parts, and they all make three jumps, then a jump to a rendezvous point, we may evade the Cylons entirely, or at least only face a small part of the pursuing fleet.

Our recent jump back in the direction of the main fleet, our fifth, was a long one, and despite the many hours we were able to spend on maintenance without Cylon interference, we need another hour to put our FTL drive in good enough condition to make our final jump to the rendezvous point with the main fleet.

We have maneuvred into a dense asteroid field. Any Cylons jumping in will have to emerge far from our ship, and in a volume we have 2 Vipers in.

Pilots are reminded once more 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. Pilots must eject after completing their patrols, 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 delay any Cylon raiders that jump in so they do not have the opportunity to destroy our FTL drive before it is back online. We have 2 Vipers on patrol near likely FTL emergence points, another on 5 minute cockpit alert, and our last on 30 minute briefing room readiness. After that, the cupboard is bare.

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.

Some of these ships have evaded pursuit, so we are maintaining a thin cordon near the human fleet to intercept returnees. We are now operating at the limits of our range. Raiders have enough fuel to FTL in if summoned, but not to make any further jumps.

Sitrep

Long range sensors have detected what may be a returning ship entering the cordon in a system full of asteroids. We have despatched a few Raiders to investigate, and with orders to evade any resistance and target the ship's FTL drive before it can jump out. A heavy raider with Centurion boarding party will be despatched once this is accomplished. If the ship is captured, it will be loaded with nuclear missiles and will rejoin the human fleet to execute a decapitating strike. If the ship is not captured, we will have to expend an asset currently with the Human fleet, the Olympic Carrier instead, which will mean we lose track of the Humans.

Resistance is predicted to be light, but we have encountered Vipers attached to these ships. We may face Raptors despatched from the main fleet too.

Bridge of the Canis Major

"How are the repairs to the FTL drive going, Chief?"

"Doing the final tests now, skipper. It's a long jump, the next one, so we can't take any chances. 45 minutes assuming nothing goes wrong."

"A long jump - but the last one, Chief. We'll get to rendezvous point 4, We're close enough to Galactica that the Cylons will have more Raiders than we can deal with if we have an intermediate jump. Now, CAG, how is the fighter wing going?"

"Drink warning next time please skipper. "CAG"? Our "fighter wing" consists of Fireball and Murphy on Combat Space Patrol outside the asteroid belt, Bunny in her cockpit on 5 minute alert and Skyfire grabbing some sleep in the ready room, on 30 minute alert. Fireball and Murphy will have to eject in 40 minutes anyway, those wrecks they are flying just aren't safe after that."

"Good, things are going well at...."

"DRADIS reports 2 Cylon raiders have jumped in!"

"Ok CAG, tell Fireball and Murphy to intercept and keep them away from us, Scramble Bunny immediately and Skyfire as soon as he's suited up."

SAR Raptor Ruptured Duck

"Hey Janus?"

"Yes, Duck?"

"Do you ever get bored just listening to your long range comms, away from the action?"

"Duck, it's said that war is long periods of boredom, punctuated by moments of sheer terror. I *like* boredom."

"Janus?"

"Yep?"

"What do you think of our new name?"

"The maintenance guys weren't able to fix the hole we got in our port wing 2 jumps ago. So "Ruptured Duck" rather than "Angry Gander" it was. We just fly in it, they get to say what it's called."

"Got any news from that magic box of yours, Janus?"

"Just that our guys are mixing it up with the Cylons, with another Viper on the way to the patrol zone...FRACK another Raider jumped in. FRACK again, picking up a colonial distress beacon..."

"Time to earn our pay. One Jump into a hot extraction zone coming up..."

"Duck?"

"Yes?"

"At least you didn't say it was Easy. E Z, get it?"

Comms traffic

"Did you see that???"

"Bunny here, on my way to help, see what Fireball?"

"The smoothest rescue I've ever seen... one moment the Raptor jumped in beside me, took a few hits, picked up Murphy, then jumped out..took maybe 30 seconds. Fracking brilliant."

Comms Traffic

"Bunny, I could do with a little help here.. I have 2 Cylons on my 6..."

"Fireball, get out of there, I'll cover you!"

"Bunny, it's 3 vs 1.."

"Fireball, I've got this! Take that, twist, fire, reverse, fire, die frack you! Reverse, fire, boost, fire, sorry Fireball. They're all hurting bad, but there's too many of them. Tell..."

"Sirius Actual, Fireball, report!"

"They got Bunny. She didn't get out. I got one as I exited the furball, but my control panel has more red lights than the main streets of Pikon..."

"Sirius Actual, Fireball, join up with Skyfire and go head on at them. You have to stop them from attacking us."

"Fireball, willco."

"Skyfire, willco."

Bridge of Canis Major

"What's the status?"

"2 vs 2, skipper. Skyfire is cherry, Fireball hit but not too bad, both Cylons are hurt badly. I've recommended head on attacks, nothing fancy, statistically our guys should win easily."

"Ok, first pass completed, Fireball and opponent both reversed, hits on both Cylons, second pass now..."

"Sirius Actual, Fireball, come in!"

"Sirius Actual, Skyfire, come in!"

"Sir...we are picking up 2 Colonial distress beacons. The 2 Cylons are still there. Tests of FTL completed. Recommend..."

"I know. Nothing we can do but hope the Duck can pull off 2 rescues while facing 2 Cylons. The Vipers did their job. Get us out of here. Jump on my mark...Mark!"

Ruptured Duck

"How's it going back there, Murphy?"

"Fine, Janus. Glad you got me out... tell me, are your wings supposed to have holes in them?"

"Yes, well, we have a matched set now, left and right. Nothing serious. Duck?"

"Yes?"

"That was some fine piloting there, straight out of the textbook. But please, no more moments of sheer terror, OK?"

"I'll try, Janus. Must keep our passenger safe. No promises though. Looks like the Cylons missed their chance at the Canis Major."

"Thanks, Duck....oh."

"Janus?"

"Duck...I now have TWO colonial rescue beacons, close together but on opposite courses."

"Hmm. Tricky. Murphy, strap in, Janus, fire up the self defence missile system. This could get a little hairy...stand by for jump... jump."

CARB!!!

GER...

FEL...

"Duck?"

"Sorry, a little busy now doing my piloting thing..."

"Please don't do that again. The Jumping On Top Of Two Cylon Raiders thing I mean."

"Janus? Just hang on tight, this little brown duck is going to do a bootlegger turn, get ready to fire..."

"Janus, your shooting is going to have to improve, my man..."

"Duck, I can't help it if the proximity fuses go off too early!"

"Now I'm going to extend moving backwards, to give you more shots and take em one at a time. First the close one, the one with all the holes in...Ready some point blank contact fuse missiles..."

"Good shooting, Janus! Knew you had it in you. Now for the one leaking blood everywhere.. get in close so he can't fire, then hit him with prox missiles. Ready?"

Ok, he missed. A quick reversal as he overshoots, and let him have it!

"Janus?"

"Y-y-yes, Duck?"

"Good shooting. Now let's get down to our day job, rescuing pilots. Stand by for the first pick up."

(Later)

"Everybody right back there? Murphy? Fireball? Skyfire?"

"Yo!"

"Yup!"

"Guess so!"

"Then ladies and gents, welcome to the Ruptured Duck, with your hosts Janus and The Duck. Three jumps and we'll be back with the fleet. Sorry we can't do it in one, but Raptors like the Ruptured Duck can't jump too far in one FTL hop. So sit back and relax, while we serve light refreshments."

"Duck?"

"Yes, Fireball?"

"Ever think of transferring to Vipers?"

"Nah. Like Janus, I prefer boredom to terror. Isn't that right, Janus?"

"If you say so, Duck. If you say so."

Rules for recovering ejected pilots

  • Raptor must match course within 30 degrees (ie within a firing arc) and KE of ejectee, and be in base contact.
  • Ejected pilots move using the drift template, according to their KE, twice a turn, once when overboosts are played, once when other cards are played. Use the KE and direction of movement of the Viper when it was KO'd. A KE of -1, 0 or 1 means no movement.
  • Only Raptors without extra gear cards (armament) can recover ejectees - only they have the internal room, and adding weapons makes them too unmaneuverable for rescues to be practicable.
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  • Pilots with 1 wound have to be rescued quickly (suggest 6 turns)
  • Pilots with 2 wounds cannot eject, but a Raptor can rendezvous with the Viper and extract them.
  • Pilots with 3 wounds are dead.

Ares Games thanks Zoe as well as all the players who took part in the games at Wintercon and Gamma Con. Keep following the Battlestar Galactica – 33 Campaign!

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