5150 Fighter Command: Hunter Hunted

It was quite time i played game Fighter Command and i said its time to put those fighters from EM4 into use! For game i used one of RPG setting set in universe where Humans are in war with mysterious race of Hecate. And Humanity is losing .

"This is Alpha flight, we are near field. Wait a minute picking up three contacts but they field interference is to high"

"Concordia actual to Alpha Flight, roger that proceed with caution"





The scenario was typical patrol that could and most cases will run wrong but this time for Flight leader Archer and his wingman Stilleto they have pure luck - they run into flight of heavy fighters, Corvette and two bombers but they managed to destroy them before they got organised. here its how the Patrol went.

Navpoints were generated in sector 6,5,2 and PEF in sectors 6,2,1. Lt. Archer was REP 5 star with expert gunner trait while  Stilleto his wingman had REP 4.
The Contacts moved forward 4" only the that in sector 2 was not moving but Alliance patrol pushed forward. 

"Archer did you see it?"
"Yeah, another party crushers arrived it seems or another ghost signal of this damned graveyard....."

Next turn another PEF appeared the situation started not seem good for Alliance patrol. All PEF moved forward. And the First one was now in sensor range.

"Contact! two boogies! two medium fighters closing in"
"Stiletto! Break and engage! Fox 1!"
"Roger! Fox 1!"
"Damn! He launching decoys miss! Hell yeah direct hit! what that bugger still live?"

Alpha 1 and 2 launched their FF missle to quickly dispatch hostiles, but first missle miss and second damaged hull and threw first Hecate medium fighter from course giving time to Alliance fighters close in. Archer and Stilleto opened deadly fire quickly dispatching both fighters.

Then they continued towards the first Navpoint.
Two PEF now in sensor range it really start looking bad.

"I got some ghost here, yeah confirmed first siginal was ghos...."
"Hell homing on second blip! its big ! indentification confrimed its Hecate Corvette!"
"Concordia! This Alpha were are in trouble! We just discovered enemy Corvette hiding in field"
"No use they jamming us!"

While first signal gone, the second was capital ship but it was facing opposite direction so our brave team tried to dispatch it with remaing two FF missles, both struck hit and obliterated corvette engines ripping it apart. Plain dumb luck if you ask me. And Patrol closed in on last PEF to make sure that area is clear. PEF was two bombers and team wanted to quickly bring them down. The first bomber tried Yaw reversal but failed and that propably saved his life.

The second bomber was smashed by Archers fire, but second was out of range of Stilleto guns. So he tried to make run for it but he cannot out run Alliance light fighters which blew him out of sky.  In next turn Alliance flight arrived on battlefield riding two medium fighters after that all patrol was nice quiet and pilots returned for some meal.


As Always the game was nice and full of suprises corvette was pretty nasty if missles wont strike home i could be in some serious trouble but nice work Alpha flight!

Ever Evolving Hecates part 1

When i was decided to create alien race to Full Thrust crossed dimensions i was thinking about Freespace Shivan or Master of Orion 2 Antares style race, great destroyers, but when playing some 4X games on my computer i realised, to give them more feel like real, while great destroyers are funny something to create my own race and give them part of me. to give them more background i need to some kind of language and i choose  Kelen on of the artificial languages you can find on net.

while logical it doesnt resemble any type of language on earth break all laws for it.

History

Jalūta - The Great war

The Hecates are calling them selves Jatāona,  and their race has been among stars for centuries, and on some planets thumans discovered ruins with Hecate symbols thousand years old. Hecates have legend, how their Empire grown and prospered for many years until Masēnre came - The enemy. Great War eruppted and last for thousand years until Hecates were defeated and Masēnre left .Then came decandence Jatāona - Antāra. Durning this age which last today Hecates lost many of their technologies, and their spacefaring  empire are only fraction of what it was before Antāra. 

Civilisation
Unlike humans Jatāona have caste system, every invididual is born with certain predisposition, some have capability to use pheromones, and smarter than rest - making them excelent leaders, commanders. this Jatāonas became part of leading caste -  Makerāon. Most Numerous individuals however are born strong and with excelent space coordination Tāña.  To this caste belong all pilots and marines in their nomadic fleets but concept of them are not warrior but rather defender of fleet. Last great caste is Ankīri there are some hecates born without any "gift", they will not be leaders or defenders, but their work for fleet is more important, to this caste belong scientists, engineers, workers and the rest

The Hecates dont have rulling goverment which will lead all their fleets, but rather every fleet it is self-contained empire. But when crisis raises they work together as one. This race is highly religious beliving in rise of their empire someday and destroying Masēnre so they can live in peace and end their exile.

Every fleet is lead by female Jatāona called Marōāñēl - Oracle, while Commanders and Captains leads their ship- She leads the fleet in terms of civilisation - where the fleet will go and what to do there. Usually when Oracle dies, one of the kēra (term for priest) aquire gifts of Oracle and became the new one.

Myths and legend also speak about great Anīstīli, last planet habitated by Hecate - whatever this is their homeworld is not known, and no Jatāona ever saw this planet. Legends said it is home of  Mārjanen, the Great Oracle. She is now sleeping, but will raise when the time is right, and will lead Jatāona to their destiny

Scout Drone

Technology
While according to legends the Jatāona race lost many of their advanced technologies, their still far more advanced than humans. their FTL drives called Anxūri are far more effective than human drives, faster and more precision capable of jumping near planets or stars. Most Hecate ships are also equipped with shields which protect their ships againts beam weapons they are called Anxēxi.  Main weapons of Jatāona ships are Anlūi, meaning sunlight capable of riping through other races with ease.

Origins
Hecates are aquatic race, originating from planet they are refering as Anālhāri, which leads human scientists to belief that Anīstīli is the remaing colony of Hecate Empire. But strange is that Hecate ruins found through known space were found on barren or desert planets. Durning boarding actions and ground combat (this happen rarely though Jatāona marines are using exo-suits and drones which enable them fighting in virtually any conditions.

Relations
Humans barely understands Jatāona and their psychology. Firstly is the concept of Alliances for Hecates, it is temporaly thing, used only in time of crisis, when crysis is averted, behavior of Jatāona Fleet can and will change, former ally can now found itself in combat with fleet. Also dealing with Oracles are hard job even for most skilled human diplomats, they percieve world so differently that is almost impossible to make any diplomatic progress apart from short-term treaties.


this is all for this post i will continue with more details about Jatāona

Full thrust AAR,Hecate FT Cz

 

Few days ago my Hecate fleet meet in battlefield with my Friend T´au fleet (now OOP models from Forge world which is shame, they are really nice models. we both have  Battlecruisers, but T´au have also cruiser, and three destroyers. My Hecate has two heavy and two normal destroyers. maneoering along the planets i quickly engaged Envoy ship (T´au cruiser) and with few salvo missles she went down from my destroyers. T´au Protector (Battlecruiser) and Hecate Aeshma we´re locked in deadly close-range fire which Protector emerged victorious. heavy destroyers exchanged fire with two castellans (T´au heavy destroyers) which again prevail and destroy one of the Hecate H destroyers but suffering lot of damage. destroyers were capable of cripling third escort which to avoid any more damage move out of their range. Destroyers then engaged Protector and dealt heavy damaged, T´au fleet regained iniative and destroy one heavy and one normal destroyer, remaing Hecate ships disengaged, and today T´au fleet was victorious.

Před několika dny se má Flotila rasy Hecate utkala s flotilou T´au (dnes již nevyráběné modely od Forge worldu což je škoda jsou to opravdu pěkné modely. Obě naše flotily obsahovali loď třidy Battlecruiser, T´au také měli k dispozici také Cruiser a tři destroyery. Hecate oproti tomu disponovali dvěma destroyery a dvěma heavy destroyery. Destroyeři Hecate které manévrovali kolem jedné ze dvou planet rychle zaměřili křižník pomocí salvo missles a teměř bez obtíží zničili. Protector(T´auí Battlecruiser) a Aeshma (Hecatský Battlecruiser) s utkali v boji zblízka, a z tohoto souboje vyšel Protector jako vítěz. Těžké destroyery si vyměnovali střelbu z Castelany (Destroyeři T´au) a vzajmně se těžce poškodili ale jeden z těžkých destroyerů Hecate byl zničen. mezitím se destroyeři utkali se třetím Castelanem a poškodili ho, v zajmu zachrány lodě se Castelán odpoutal a snažil se dostat z dosahu , zbraní destroyerů, byl vyřazen můstek ale T´au rychlé systém opravili. Destroyery se poté opřeli do Protectora kterého ještě více poškodili, ale Castelánům se podařilo druhý destroyer vyřadit, Zbylé Hecatské lodě zvolili ústup, a tak se změnila bitva ve vítězství T´au


Prior to Battle i painted GZG Mystery Fleet/Crusties ships for my own universe Hecate ships here are some pics.
Před bitvou jsem nabarvil některé lodě od GZG z řady Mystery/Crusties pro mojí Flotilu Hecate. zde několik fotek

Protože považuji hru Full Thrust za kvalitní a hlavně volně šiřitelnou rozhodl  jsem udělat překlad pravidel Cross Dimensions do češtiny v horizontu několika týdnu by se mohla proto první verze objevit.

Hecate my alien race to Full Thrust

As great Freespace  i always wanted to create similiar race into spaceship gaming, not even BFG allow it

something similiar - i dont want space "bugs" who only feeds but something more sinister  like Shivans.

While my Mystery fleet ships or on the way i decided to create some form of background of race, since i was always RPG player/gamemaster i just love this side of hobby - creating your own background.




It begun with name Hecate - Greek goddess of witchcraft among other things, apart from that it sound menacing so who are Hecate? Know your enemy and that stuff? Well basicly humanity dont know much about Hecate and their motives. Few months ago Hecate ships appear in Ross 128 system and destroyed human instalation along with military protection detail, and then disappear. Similiar attacks happened along border worlds in whole human space but without any pattern or it seems.

Face of Enemy

Since then Human diplomats and Inteligence services tried to contact Hecate, but without any success.
Durning battle of Beta Aquille humans was able to beat off Hecate, and also recover one smaller Hecate ship and thus founding dying bodies of  their enemy. Quickly they assume that Hecate evolved in water or in low/zero gravity which gave them they main advantage, they have far more better space coordination than humans allowing them using their ships in space to its limits.
Hecate ships are faster and more maneovrable than human counterparts, thanks to different propulsion system. Weapons of Hecate starships are similiar to humans although they are using different technology in terms of power and destruction potential are similiar


After Battle of Beta Aquille the Hecate dissappear and never to return, or it seems. Humans joked about how they crushed aliens with single stroke. But truth was different, Hecate were lurking shadows and prepearing for invasion. the first who faced the invasion was Admiral of 7th fleet with his ships for first time humanity faced Hecate Light Carriers and Dreadnought, and within matters of minutes 7th Fleet fallen ill prepeared to meet this kind of threat.

After fall of 7th Fleet the humanity , lost almost every border colony forcing whole fleets to retreat to core worlds and earth itself. Will humanity be able to turn the tide and defeat Hecates are will they succumb to total destruction of human race?

Hecate Fleet (Courtesy of  http://starbase-spartan.blogspot.cz)