Driving Space Ships - Sinking the Trump

I got to play in a multiplayer game of Full Thrust. We played with a few modifications the main ones were that hull and armour boxes took two damage to disable and that missiles only did 2 beam dice damage. We were also playing with vector movement.

I got to play on the side of the Glorious Chinese Empire who were conducting a Pearl Harbour style attack on an American Empire repair facility. The Chinese objective was to sink the American battleship which was in for repairs after an earlier battle.

The American repair base was hidden in some asteroids so you couldn't just make a high speed straight line run.

So with great cunning the Chinese plans were hatched. Operation "lets make America obedient again" was on.

 Here is an overview of the areas of the operations. The Chinese squadrons are arriving from the bottom of the map. The American repair base with docked battleship is in the middle with a nearby fuel tender.

 The American defense commander, who looks a bit like Colonel Saunders, ponders how to give the attackers a dose of his secret recipe.

 Here is the Chinese right flank squadron, consisting of 2 light cruisers and a swarm of missile defence boats

 Here the Glorious Chinese get their first taste of American perfidy, or is that their special sauce? The Americans have grouped all their patrol ships into one group and its in the path of one of the Chinese squadrons.

While this was a nasty surprise and made life exciting, it ultimately proved a mistake because all teh American destroyers got tied down on a skirmish miles away from the ship they were supposed to be guarding.

 Here are my glorious ships leading the way. these are decent little ships mounting 4 beam 2 weapons and with some armour and a decent amount of hull.

Here is the right flank squadron making its advance. The counters all over the ships represent their past and future position markers which helps us plot their vectors. If you apply thrust we move the future position marker that amount. then plot the next vector and leapfrog the ships and counters forwards.

 Here are the American heavy cruisers getting underway, we code named these, "Corporate Greed" and "Insider Trading".

Their scanner screens must have lit up like Christmas.








In the top of the picture you can see the American destroyers closing on the first Chinese squadron with the enthusiasm of share traders sensing an undercapitalised company.

Lurking in the middle of the table are some American destroyers that I will need to get past. These bouncers don't want to let me into their exclusive country club.

 The action is now hotting up, my ships have slipped past the American destroyers and into the inner defence zone. The destroyers get hit a couple of salvos of beam fire and some missiles which were notoriously ineffective. We must have serious works with the inspectors for the Ministry of Quality Control.

The Flotilla leader from the left hand squadron has made it past the American destroyers and the right hand squadron is almost in launch range.

The Trump is getting underway, its sluggish from a standing start.

A second wave arrive on the left flank in position to ambush the American ambushers. This group proved very successful in pinning down the destroyers and preventing them from interfering with the main engagement.

 Missiles away, the Chinese second wave lose their missiles at the destroyers

 Here is my second wave, they wont arrive in time to attack the Trump but would have been useful to destroy the fuel ship or main repair facility

The glorious right hand assault fleet gets into position to launch its missiles and strafe the Trump.

 My center group ships have left the American destroyers behing and are lining up for their attack run on the Trump, the right assault group launch their missiles, the two American cruisers are now in position to make their presence felt

My first squadron are now in long range of the Trump. The Chinese ships now have so much speed that the Americans can't get the sustained fire they need to stop the Chinese assault.










The American commander complements the Chinese commander on the quality of his ship.

My second wave are now lining up on the American destroyer group.












The end is nigh for the Trump, my ships are now in close range and give the trump a hard pounding. Missiles are also closing from the starboard rear quarter.

My beam fire smashes the command bridge of the Trump interrupting the Captain-Preacher in mid sermon and destroying his command pulpit.






The Trump is now drifting out of control and defenceless, further rounds of beam fire pierce the hull and a salvo of missiles smash into the engine room triggering a catastrophic reactor malfunction.

With their mission accomplished the Chinese depart the combat area and leave the Americans to lick their wounds.

That's one Eagle well plucked.