Planetary Assault - Cheapest Win Possible

[Bozeman]

Two players are playing the Planetary Assault scenario.  The game is 1500 points.  The Defender spends all of their points (3D6 x 10pts, assume roll of 10 for 100 extra points) on Defences by purchasing ships, such as System Ships, Defence Monitors, etc.  The players roll off, and the Defender wins and chooses to go first.  The Defender disengages their entire fleet.  Because the scenario says the game ends when one fleet disengages, the game is over.

The Attacker, not even having a turn, rejoices at such an easy win.  The Defender explains that the victory condition requires the Attacker to earn Assault Points.  Because the Defender's fleet was 1500pts + 100pts, and disengaged without having anything being crippled, the Attacker earns 10% of this value, which is 160 victory points.  The Defender earns 1 assault point for every 500 victory points, and so earns no assault points.  This results in a Defender victory.

What do you think of such an outcome?

1. RAW, the defender is right, and deserves the victory for being so clever.

2. The defender LEFT THE PLANET THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO GUARD COMPLETELY UNGUARDED.  HOW IS THIS A WIN I DON'T EVEN ARGHLEBARGLE *foams at mouth*

3. (insert defender's name here) never arrived at my house officer.  I have an alibi for this afternoon, and I'm afraid I can't let you inside without a warrant.  The smell?  That's my dog.  HE WAS VERY NAUGHTY.

Seriously, an easy fix is for a gentleman's agreement that the defender not do this, or one free Missile Silo ground defence for the Defender, as it says in the rules for Disengaging that a SHIP must do it.

This happened to my friend John and the dude who did it was a smug jerk about it.  NEVER DO THIS.

[Seahawk]

Yuck.

The California group has been toying with this house rule that I've been warming to.

If you disengage completely early in the game, your opponent gains the following VP based on which turn this happens:

- Turn 1: 1000 VP
- Turn 2: 750 VP
- Turn 3: 500 VP
- Turn 4: 250 VP

Prevents lame *** bull**** like that from ever happening.

[Atlan]

Yea, the Question is: Do you want to play BFG or not?
If you don't want to play, disengage.

But if you want to play, there are 2 cases:

- a single game: There is no (real) reason for the defender to disengage, so just don't do it.

- in a campaing: there are some clear reasons to disengage (more or less early). But then accept defeat in this battle. Quite easy. 

[Bozeman]

Seahawk, that mod doesn't work for planetary assault.  A better fix is to say that the game ends only when the attacking fleet disengages or is destroyed, or gains 10 assault points.  If the defender disengages, the game should not end.

[Stormwind]

If someone tried that at my club I'd never buy them a pint again.

[horizon]

Yeah, rules as written are like that but if someone does it he may have won technically but to any observer it will be a loss. In various ways.

In one of games I often have moments in which I point out to my opponent that if I would disengage I would win the Battle. But I keep playing because it is more fun to do so.

[Xca|iber]

My group has run into this issue as well (although not in a way quite as negative as yours - we simply toyed with the idea when we realized it was possible within the rules). Technically, you are right and an instant disengagement at the start of a Planetary Assault will result in a defender victory, as defined in the base rules. Since this is obviously not great from a gameplay standpoint (emphasis on play), you'll need to enforce some houserules to prevent people from doing this (hopefully it won't come up that often).

My group uses something like the following:

"If the game ends and the attacker holds the field (i.e. all defending ships have disengaged or been destroyed), each remaining transport and non-crippled capital ship in the attacker's fleet automatically scores once, as if it successfully landed forces on the planet."

This makes it much harder for the defender to "win by stalling" and requires that he or she must neutralize sources of assaulting forces before safely disengaging, but still allows for the possibility of the defender to win even if their fleet must concede the field.