Second verse, same as the first. Okay, same scenario as last time. Just new initial placements. This time the Invading Force is coming in on arm E. This should put him out range for immediate hits from the space station’s missiles.

At the end of the first turn movement, the Invading Force has burned one fuel, and entered geosynchronous orbit. The Defending Force has burned no fuel and carried out their orbits. The result being nobody is in range for beam shots. No missiles have been launched.

At the end of turn 2 movement, the Attacking Force and Defending frigate are within beam range of each other (Range 2). There is no defensive beam fire, as there are no incoming missiles.

Neither side chooses to burn fuel to subtract from the rolls. Both sides need a 4+ on a six-sided die to hit. Both roll a one. Snake eyes! Both miss. End of turn 2.

Start of Turn 3. The Invading Force splits up. One frigate burns 1 and drops to Orbit 2, and thus moves two forward. The remaining Invading Force continues in Obit A and moves one forward. In response, the defending frigate also burns on to move up to Orbit 2 and moves two, to end up in a head-to-head approach with the Invading frigate. The defending satellites move, resulting in the beam satellite being in range of the drop-ships. No missiles have been dropped.

There is no defensive beam fire or missile attacks to resolve. The two frigates on approach both decide to drop missiles. They both drop three missile packs. Note: this has resulted in a rule change. The original rule had missiles moving first in the turn. This situation made me realize I always want ships to get a chance to maneuver to attempt to avoid missiles. This change isn’t set in stone as this might make missiles trivially easy to avoid. We’ll see after next movement phase.

But, there is offensive beam firing to carry out. The beam satellite fires at a drop-ship. Range is two, so the target number is 4+. The beam satellite rolls a hit. Frigate A fires back at the beam satellite, rolls a one and misses. For the satellite’s hit result a four is rolled, resulting in drop-ship A being disabled.

Now, each of the head-to-head frigates fire upon each other. Range is 1, meaning a 3+ is needed to hit. Each rolls a six, boxcars, both are hit. For beam effects results, the Defending frigate is disabled. The Invading frigate takes a weapons hit. That is the end of Turn 3.

Turn 4 begins. Invading frigate B. Frigate B burns 2 fuel to go into a polar orbit. A polar orbit marker for orbit 2 is placed on the unit. Frigate B then moves four spaces down the arm onto the planet maker, shifts one arm to arm B and moves one to the first position on arm B. Note Frigate B, while it is placed on the orbit five card, it is not in orbit five. The unit remains in orbit 2 as noted on the marker. Next turn, provided it makes no burns, it will continue moving up the arm to the orbit 2 card, then reverse course and move back down the card. By burning to achieve polar orbit frigate B has moved over the planet and is now going down the other side. Frigate B has burned hard. We’ll see if it works out for him.

The defending frigate A, though disabled manages to roll a six and removes their disabled marker. It chooses to burn polar as well. This places him in a position one arm over from invading frigate B.

Now, the remaining Invading forces take a look at their situation. If they stay in their current orbit they move one forward which will put them in range of the enemy missiles. Similarly, if they burn 1 and drop orbit, that orbit puts them directly into the missiles. So, their options are to either burn 1 and raise orbit to geosynchronous which is opposite of the direction they want to go; burn 2 and go polar as well; or burn 4 and go retrograde. Going retrograde puts the drop-ships in a position unable to land due to fuel shortage, so that’s not a real option. Going polar leaves them on the same arm as the enemy frigate. What to do? Heck, burn one drop orbit and hope for the best with the missiles. At least it is going in the right direction.

So, after movement is completed the situation looks like this. The two sets of missiles will cancel each other out. Thus, the drop-ships are mostly safe (except the beam satellite can fire on them).

There is no defensive missile fire as the two sets of missiles cancel each other out. Each of the frigates in polar orbit drop their remaining three missiles. Note that polar markers are placed on these missile stacks. The space station also drops four missiles.

The beam satellite fires on a drop-ship and misses. The frigate escorting the drop-ships fires on the beam satellite, also misses.

The frigates in polar orbit fire on each other (range1, 3+ to hit). Actually, hold it, the invading frigate has a weapons marker on it, so must roll 4+ to drop missiles or fire beams — it succeeds in firing its missiles but fails to fire beams. Only the defending frigate may fire. It hits with a three rolled. It rolls a six on the resolution table, Invading frigate B is destroyed and removed from the board. End turn 4.

Turn 5 begins. The Defending frigate maintains its orbit. The Invading fleet burn 1 and drop to orbit three, then move in that orbit. The missiles dropped by the frigates seek each other out and are cancelled. With the Invading frigate destroyed the space station missiles have no target and are removed from the board.

The space station and the Invading Force are within beam range 3 and so may shoot each other needing a 5+. The defending frigate and the Invading force are out of range from each other (Range = 1 for difference in orbit height + 1 for difference in arm +2 for units down from the equator=4).

So, the Invading Force and the Space Station fire at one another. Both miss. End turn 5.

Turn 6 begins. Invading Force burns and drops to Orbit 4. The Defending Frigate coasts around the globe to end up within beam range (0 for the same arm + 2 for orbit height + 1 unit down from the equator = range 3)

The missile satellite drops three missiles. The Invading frigate chooses to target the missiles with his beams. The odds are better with the missiles being only range 1. Rolls a 5 and destroys one of the missile markers. Note that this is different from normal defensive fire and a single hit can destroy an entire missile marker. If it had been defensive fire in the same space, the missiles had been split into six missiles, each of which could be fired on.

The defending frigate takes a shot at a drop-ship. Range is 3 needing a 4+ to hit. Defending frigate rolls a two and misses. End of turn 6.

Turn 7 begins. The satellites move. The Invading Force does not want to end up in the same relative position with the missile satellite, burns 1 and drops to orbit 5. The defending frigate keeps coasting in its polar orbit. This means it moves up the arm to orbit 2, turns 180 and continues its four remaining moves down the arm to end up on the planetary counter. Dang, I just realized I made a mistake in my previous move. The defending frigate should have moved to arm E rather than D before (planet spins). To correct this, it will be facing arm C at the end of this turn. In any case, the defending frigate is over the North Pole now.

Normally any beam shot that traces through the planet hex cannot be made. However, when a ship is over the pole, they can see down to the equatorial orbits. In this case the range is too far for a shot ( 3 for the orbit height distance + 1 for target orbit band distance =4). The space station and the beam satellite are both out of range.

But first, the fleet has two missile counters on it, we must conduct defensive fire. The two missile counters split in six warheads apiece. Defensive beams lash out. Four of the twelve missiles make it through the defenses. That means one missile resolution per Invading ship. The frigate and one drop-ship is killed. One drop-ship is missed and the other disabled.

While the disabled drop-ship might be recoverable, it probably could not be with the ground defense bases firing beams and missiles at them. As such the invaders now have no means to clear away a landing zone. So, the defending force wins.

Things Learned

• I need to make disabled, drive, and weapons damage markers
• I need to be more careful moving polar orbits.
• I need to better write-up range determination for polar orbits.
• Polar markers need to be two-sided with a plus or minus sign on them to denote above or below the equator.
• Need more testing of the missile rules to determine whether moving last is too powerful or weak.
• Space Station placement is likely better in a middling orbit to allow its missiles to burn to higher orbits or drop to lower. In a high orbit, the station loses targets as the invading ships drop in.