Space Combat Tutorial

I think people got the hang of the Space Combat (a mix of LBB #2, Mayday and a few extra details from Megatraveller and High Guard).   Bob's an old pro, and everyone else got the hang of the vector movement really quickly.

SPACE COMBAT TUTORIAL:

Imperial Side: (Bob)  
X-boat Tender (3 turrets, carrying an X-boat, and a Scout Courier);
Patrol Cruiser (4 turrets, carrying a ship's boat).

Outworlder Side (Jason and Marlon)
Zhodani Patrol Frigate (6 turrets, carrying a ship's boat)--Marlon
Varge Corsair (4 turrets)--Jason

Goal:  when an X-boat appeared out of jump space, the Imperium must retrieve the passenger and jump him out system, or the Outworlders must capture him and jump him out.

The Battle:
The Vargr swung far left, the Zhodani swung far right, the Imperials slowed down and crawled straight ahead.

The ships never got to close range.  The Zhodani's computer advantage was huge and allowed him to knock out the maneuver drive of the X-Tender.   It was only then that the Tender launched protective sand which defeated most subsequent attacks.   A huge pile of missiles were launched at both Outworlder ships.  The Zhodani frigate maaged to intercept them all, while the Vargr was pummeld by a large number of impacts, which battered it badly, but didn't cripple or destroy it.

When the X-boat finally appeared, the Patrol Cruiser's ship's boat was in excellent position, but the Zhodani frigate crippled it and captured the X-boat, winning the day.

LESSONS:  I think everyone picked up the combat system really well.  I thnk we all know what to expect from a space battle in the future (by which I mean the next time we have a space battle in game, not 5000AD). 

 If I wanted to re-balance the encounter, I should have replaced the Patrol Cruiser with a Mercenary Cruiser,  the Merc Cruiser has a Computer-5, which is only 1 less than the Frigate's Computer-6, rather than the 3 less of the patrol cruiser.   The Merc Cruiser would have meant a lot more guns, so perhaps adding a second Vargr would have made the whole thing more square.   The Impies could have beaten the Frigate, but it would have imvolved getting to close range before swamping it with missiles.

I'm still slightly unsatisfied with the missile fire aspect of things.   I don't like having to keep track of what ship fired the missiles, as well as the target.  I also need a more elegant way to track missile impact time.  Bob thought there should be a way to out-run missiles, and perhaps he's right.  Maybe ships with 6-G acceleration can make some sort of pilot roll to escape.