“Talon Tuesdays” is an article series appearing on InsideGMT periodically on Tuesdays.  It features articles from the Talon development team regarding the game’s design, development and upcoming release.

Issue #2

If a picture is worth a thousand words an example is worth a thousand rules pages.

While the Talon base rules are really succinct (9 1/2 pages last draft I checked) we still felt, after demo-ing the game to so many gamers (wargamers and non-wargamers alike) that putting a really detailed example of play into the play book was the way to go.  I’m really happy with how the rules have been refined over the development period but one of the best ways to gauge the flow of the game is to see it played.

This extended example of play is (essentially) a really meaty round from a real game Patrick Barley and I played. We tweaked a few roll results to help demonstrate parts of the system and highlight important tactical choices, but overall, this was a real 3 on 3 Heavy Cruiser battle. Our Layout Director, Mark Simonitch, did an outstanding job illustrating and organizing our example of play.

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In this extended example of play using the basic rules, we start at the top of Round 3. It is Impulse A and Talon has the initiative in this Heavy Cruiser (CA) battle. His ships will get to spend Available Power, Move and Fire before the Terran player. So far, one of Terran’s CA’s, the Patton, has taken 4 shield damage on her front arc, has both phaser groups charged but does not have any charge boxes marked off for her torpedo. All the Terran ships have their batteries charged. The Talon CA, Service, has taken 5 shield damage on her front arc and only has Red boxes charged for her disruptor groups.

On the Impulse Chart, Impulse A reads “4 5 6” so the Service will receive Available Power and the Sacrifice must move.

First, the Service spends its Available Power to charge one Yellow box on its left disruptor group. No other Talon ships get power in this Impulse.

The Sacrifice must move so he chooses to move forward one hex.

Now all Talon ships may fire at ships within range. While the Service is within firing range of the Patton, her weapon groups are not fully charged. The Sacrifice has fully charged weapons and would be able to hit the Patton’s front shields, but this shot would be at range 4 and would only hit on a roll of 5-6. The Sacrifice holds her fire for now.

It is now Terran’s Impulse as the Second Player. The Patton gets Available Power and will use it to reinforce his forward shield arc in anticipation of a Talon attack on her weak side. He places an “A” Reinforce Shield marker over his forward Shield Arc. It will expire during Impulse A in the next Round if it does not absorb any damage.

Next, the Guderian must move so she turns left then moves forward one hex. After moving forward she places a “2” Turn marker 2 hexes in front of her new position which corresponds to the turn radius on her Power Curve. Terran can also place the Turn Radius Marker directly on the vessel to track turning if the board gets too crowded. These ships need to be careful as it looks like they may collide. After Guderian moves, Terran’s ships decide to hold their fire.

Now it is Impulse B, which reads “3 5 6”. Talon’s Justice gets Available Power and will be able to move. She spends her power enabling a Side Slip.

Then she executes the sideslip during movement and slips to the left, maintaining her facing. Now Justice and Service have all weapons lined up on the Patton, but the Talon ships will not fire yet as they want to wait for a more favorable range.

Now it is Terran’s Impulse B and Napoleon will get power and move. She uses her power to place a Change Initiative marker then she moves forward one hex.

Impulse B ends and since the Napoleon placed a Change Initiative marker and the Talon ships did not place any Defend Initiative markers the Terrans steal the Initiative. The Impulse counter flips and the Terrans now act as the Intiative Player for Impulse C.

In Impulse C, Guderian and Patton get Available Power and must move. Uh-oh, it looks like Guderian must move forward because she has a Turn Radius Marker in front of her. This means she will collide with Napoleon, damaging them both!

Fortunately, Guderian gets Available Power before movement. She enables a Side Slip so she can avoid the collision.

Meanwhile, the Patton also gets Available Power so she marks off a Yellow box on her torpedo. Yellow boxes can be marked off even if no Red boxes are marked off.

During movement, Guderian executes her Side Slip, moving behind Napoleon without changing facing. Note that the Turn Radius Marker shifts in the same direction AND moves 1 hex closer. The Turn Radius Marker can be flipped to the “1” side. The Patton decides to move 1 hex forward.

Front Firing Arc shown in orange.

The Patton is now at range 2 for firing on Service. Since Firing Arcs and ShieldArcs are the same, Patton’s phasers will hit Service’s forward shields. Another way of thinking about it is: Patton’s forward Firing Arc “sees” Service and Service’s forward firing arc “sees” Patton. Patton fires his left phaser group, rolling a 2 which deals 1 damage. Then he fires the right phaser group, rolling a 6 which deals 2 damage. Now Service’s front shields are down, any fire she takes on that Shield Arc will go directly on her hull and she can no longer Reinforce that shield. Patton erases the Charge Bars for his left and right phaser groups.

The Terrans aren’t finished yet! Even though the Napoleon did not get Available Power or move in this Impulse, she may still fire. Her torpedo can hit the Service at range 3 and since Napoleon is in Service’s forward Firing Arc, the torpedo will land on Service’s forward Shield Arc which is down, so all damage will go to the hull. At this range the torpedo will only hit on a roll of 3-6, otherwise it misses completely. Napoleon fires and rolls a 3, just barely enough. This deals 4 damage directly onto Service’s hull. As soon as Service marks off the third hull box (a Critical Hull Box) she must roll on the Critical Damage table with 2 six-sided dice. An 8 is rolled, causing Power Relay Damage. Starting with this Power Phase, Service will have to subtract 1 from the Available Power on her Power Curve in addition to the “-2” that is now the left-most hull box on Service’s hull. Napoleon erases the torpedo’s charge bar. Now the Talon get their Impulse C.

The Sacrifice and Service get Available Power and movement in this Impulse. Sacrifice places a Change Initiative marker in order to take the Initiative back. Service charges a Yellow box on her left disruptor group.

The Talon desire vengeance! Sacrifice closes in on Patton and Service moves forward in an effort to force the other Terran ships to fire on his good left Shield Arc.

After movement, Patton is at range 2 in Sacrifice’s forward Firing Arc for both disruptor groups. This attack will hit Patton’s front Shield Arc. Sacrifice fires doing what tactical officers refer to as an “alpha strike”. An “alpha strike” is when all of a ship’s weapons are fired at once for maximum effect. Sacrifice rolls for one of the two disruptors in the right disruptor group getting a 2. This barely hits, dealing 2 damage to Patton’s front Shield Arc. First the Reinforce Shield marker is removed as it absorbs one of the damage, then another shield box is marked off. Now Sacrifice fires its other disruptor in that group, rolling a 6. This also hits for 2 damage. Now Patton’s front shields are down and he has taken 1 hull damage. Sacrifice erases the Charge Bar for the right disruptor group.

Sacrifice will now fire its left disruptor group’s weapons. The first disruptor rolls a 5, dealing 2 damage. Then, the Sacrifice fires its last disruptor on the left group rolling another 5. This destroys a Critical Hull Box. The Patton rolls on the Critical Damage table — she rolls lucky number 7, no critical damage occurs. Patton has only 1 hull box left, good thing they had that Reinforce Shield marker! Sacrifice erases the left weapon group charge bar.

Before Terran can breathe a sigh of relief, Talon goes for a kill shot! Even though Justice did not gain Available Power or move this Impulse, she may still fire her weapons. Both her disruptors will hit Patton’s empty forward Shield Arc. Range 3 disruptors only hit on a roll of 3-6, but it is worth it to take this shot as just one hit will destroy Patton. Justice fires her right weapon group first. If this hits, she will still have her left weapon group available to fire on other ships this Round. She rolls a 2, which misses with the first disruptor in the group, then she rolls a 5 which hits for 2 damage, destroying Patton. Justice erases her right weapon group Charge Bar.

Patton explodes! This deals explosion damage to adjacent friendly and enemy ships as well as any ships that are in the same hex as Patton. Here Service will take explosion damage on her side Shield Arc. Patton’s explosion rating is 3, so Service takes 3 damage. If a ship happened to be in the same hex as Patton they would take 4 damage (explosion rating + 1) on a random Shield Arc.

Now that the Impulse is over, the Change Initiative marker that Sacrifice placed steals the Initiative back from the Terran. Talon goes first in Impulse D.

To be continued in Part 2…

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Previous Article in the Series: Talon Tuesday Issue #1 – Dice Tower Convention 2015

Next Article in the Series: Talon Tuesday Issue #3 – Example of Play Part 2