UK Admiral Beta day

Fore note: This post will NOT have any rules, ship points, fleet lists etc. It is my run through of the day and how it went, along with my feelings on the game as we stand.

Being a local Talon (now official since early Feb) I was asked if I wanted to help Hawk out at the UK Admiral Beta test day. Obviously I jumped at the chance.
I am in at Commodore level (and some, with all the extra shineys), but having had a couple of play-tests of the rules (pre-beta) I guess I'm in a decent position to help out.

I arrived early and had the task of assisting the set-up of the tables.......there were 35 of them - that's bigger than any Invasion so far!

I was sent to de-bag and fix the UCM to their flight stands, adding flight stands to Scourge, sorting out activation cards and dumping tokens on tables.
There was a buzz about the Hawk guys, even though they must have been utterly knackered from all the late nights gluing models and getting the rules ready.
The doors flung open to the eagerly awaiting Admirals (and their +1s), all resplendent in their white uniforms ...... hello sailor!

Well ok, no-one actually turned up in their uniform; more's the pity.

The cabinets were full of the wonderfully painted miniatures, including all the PHR.

There were Space Station bits (1 sprues worth, apparently you get 4 sprues per box, and if you've seen the BoW video then it's going to be a fabulous addition to the game).

There was also a painted up Princess cruise liner. Personally my favourite ship model, and it looks gorgeous all painted in a shimmering silver.

Then my favourite bits of gaming accessory ever. The resin cluster packs. These are so, so detailed. I can't wait to get my hands on these, and they are in scale with the ships, that is just insane.

 Below are some other pictures I took of the cabinet

The Adamant (Battle Cruiser)

The Basilisk (Battle Cruiser)

After a brief announcement and catching up with familiar faces, all the Admirals were assigned a random table. Luckily for me there were an odd number of attendees, so I stepped in and played some games.
The tables looked amazing. It is unconfirmed whether the mats we played on are to be the ones in the 2 player starter set, if they are then that is superb.

Tables ready to play on

I'd had a good read thorough of the Beta rules, and then again some crucial bits, plus I had a fair bit of prior knowledge too.

The first game my opponent and I were very free in our discussions about what ships did and how they acted, there was a lot of looking through the rules for what happens when etc but it was really smooth to play. The rules (as they stand) are very clear and simple to pick up and understand. It's really easy to pick up and play.

I was playing Scourge as my opponent wanted to play UCM (perfect for me as Scourge or Shaltari will be my factions for DfC). The mission for the day was 3 medium clusters along the centre line. There were victory points for having the most tonnage of ships within 6" of a cluster at the end of each turn and for owning a cluster with ground assets at the end of the game.

The game ended with a 14-2 win for me and we both learned a lot.

It seemed that the Scourge were taking an early lead over the first game among all the Admirals.

About half way through the game

After lunch (a triple carbs mountain of Chicken burger, curly fries and pasta!) we were told we could free play. I had been chatting with Iron Skies of the Hawk forum and First Wave pod fame so we decided to throw some dice. Adam wanted to play UCM so I happily obliged.

After both learning a lot from our first games it was a tight affair. We knew which ships were useful, and which to remove as early as possible. It ended as a 12-9 win for me but I lost all but 2 frigates. This shares a lot of comparisons with Dropzone, in that you can still win a mission and get your ships slaughtered. Dice weren't with me when I needed it, and launch assests are awesome!

I managed to squeeze in 1 more game before I had to get my arse back home (it doesn't count as baby-sitting when it's your own kids, but essentially it's what I had to do). I played a guy called Steve who I had had some lengthy chats with during the day. I knew him from Dropzone too.

I let Steve choose which faction he wanted to play, he chose UCM, so a hat-trick of Scourge games for me....awesome!! This game was very tight, it seemed as we all played and learned through the day, we all got better at the game. I lost out by 1 victory point 8-9 and it was a very exciting game that could easily have gone either way. It went down to the last ground asset combat in the last activation of the last turn.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day and the games. I don't think anyone went home unhappy. All the Hawk guys and Andy Chambers himself were on hand to answer any queries the players had, I found myself answering a lot of questions too. All the Admirals will be reporting their feedback to Hawk and probably  definitely playing some more over the coming weeks and months.

As I said before I really like the feel of the game, and although we only played starter box level I can see the tactical depth. Hawk are on to a winner here. I think with a little tweek here and there and some fleshing out of the parts that weren't needed for the beta days, it's going to be an exceptional rule set.

It's whet my my appetite even more for June. I CAN NOT wait for my models to arrive!