The Bait

by Andy Chambers

On an unrelated topic there was a query about The Bait scenario recently (which I binned by accident unfortunately), basically asking if it was winnable and what the context of the scenario was. The idea behind the bait is that an enemy force is lurking at the edge of the system and uses the classic method of the baited trap to draw some of the opposing ships away from defence of the inner planets. The bait in this case is a lone warship which attracts the defender's attention (by strafing a colony, destroying some transports or whatever) and then runs hell for leather into the area where other ships are waiting to ambush the pursuers. Now comes the difficult part. The ambushing forces don't want to reveal their size and strength too much, particularly if any of the pursuing ships manage to disengage and warn the other defenders in-system. Therfore the trap needs to be sprung with sufficient force to ensure victory, but not so much that the full attacking force is there for all to see.

When we playtested this scenario we found that the ambushing ships could inflict immense harm by delaying their entry for a few turns and coming on behind the pursuers. Assuming that the bait ship is a reasonably scary ship like a heavy/battlecruiser which turns on its pursuers at the optimum time the pursuers can easily become trapped between two forces. Bringing on the full 500 points of ambushers seemed to make the battle a foregone conclusion, so I tried to balance it to ensure the ambushers had a hard decision about how much to commit, thus leaving the pursuers with a chance of victory.

In retrospect the full victory points approach may well have been too harsh, bear in mind we'd played this scenario four or five times already by this point so we knew how to go about it pretty efficiently (remember to zig zag if your pursuers are using Nova cannon, for example). It's also worth bearing in mind that a scenario which involves anything but two equal forces lining up on opposite sides of table will make some players cry 'unfair' and believe that they can't win before they start (wimps).

What do the rest of you think? Is the Bait unbalanced? Unwinnable? If so what changes should be made to get it to work? The world waits...


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