First game of Full Thrust

Right, so I've painted up these little ships I got from em4miniatures and tried Full Thrust out. In all my fleets are now composed by four factions each comprising roughly 12 ships which is a reasonable approach to this new hobby.
Tonight they took the field for first time using the FT Lite rules. After a skirmish with two Frigates and a Destroyer each to get our heads around the rules my opponent and I delved into the game proper.
During the first game I realized how dangerous maneuvers around asteroids and other bodies can be. Not realizing I'd mis-calculated my course, one of my frigates flew into a body of rocks which, since it was travelling at a speed of 10 with a thrust of 4 and didn't make its maneuver roll of 6, produced one by very dead scout frigate.
As my opponent closed around my destroyer I veered it off the board and turned the other one to flee, accelerating so that it, too, flew off the board and we called it quits.
The rationale behind that game was that an advance force of the Red Hawks (catchy, huh? LOL!) was peering into Mokraz space (purple ships...not as catchy but I'm working on it...beats Purple People Eaters which is how we referred to them during the game!) searching for weaknesses in the perimeter ahead of the main invasion force. With that we resolved we'd play the next game with me one frigate down as my scouts reported back to the Mokraz base, mustered the rest of the fleet and went forth to better investigate the encounter.
Out to the board came 2x Red Hawk frigates, 2x destroyers, 2x light cruisers, 1x heavy cruiser and 1 battle cruiser against the same amount of Mokraz ships (minus one frigate)

 

Much of my luck lay in the use of the terrain which due to our starting deployment meant my main force could focus on the left flank on four Red Hawk ships pretty much protected by a glaring stellar body known as Candelus Holderus which dominated the center of the table.

 

Not wanting to repeat my maneuver blunder from the first game I kept speed quite low and pounded away, flying and skimming and the battle was quite bloody.

 

By turn 7 the Red Hawk left was no more and then their center copped it, after which I swept wide and immobilized their battle cruiser and they conceded defeat.

 

All in all a nice way to spend three hours, what with our having to look over the rulebook often to commit rules to memory and change cds and eat and the like. Yes, for the investment it requires this is certainly a game I can look forward to enjoying for some time.
And, for the record, the Red Hawk dominion ships were hurled back to their outpost and will think again about stepping out of their boundaries for some time, I'm sure. What a walloping!
Or will they?

LOL!