One of the players in my Traveller game couldn't make it last week, so the rest of us played Starmada instead.  We had two who had never played, and two of us who had played before, so we formed teams of one newbie and one vet on each side.  My ally chose the Imperial fleet from ISS, while my opposing newbie chose a mix of human ships from H&C.  My vet opponent and I were both running custom fleets; I had recently upgraded my Battlefleet Eldar with cloaking and extra speed, and he's been tweaking a medium-range forward-firing Fleet With No Name.  A roll of the die brought us Hit and Run, and another roll put Tim and I on offense.  Tim's ship selection options were kind of sparse; we split the points of each side, so we each had 500 while our opponents each had 700.  He ended up with two light cruisers (The Swift Mongoose and the Heartbreaker) and two frigates (The Fiddlesticks and the "Ur Umm" - we concluded that he was playing the Crazy Empire, and the question was asked why I had chosen to ally with him), as well as a flight of independent fighters, while I was fielding two light cruisers (Sword and Spear of Khaine, modified Solarises; removed the fighters, upgraded the engines to 12, and added extra guns) and an upgunned Aconite frigate (Diving Falcon).  Our opponents fielded a mix of ships; Matt the New had a group of three frigates, a Dai-Ken Light Cruiser (I think), and a UES Heavy Cruiser (all named after Disney characters), while Alex fielded four light cruisers (Elysiums) and a battlecruiser (Avalon).

We rolled for terrain on Harrigan's campaign system's random terrain tables; 5 minefields of varying sizes.  We alternated placement, and ended up with a wide swath of the middle of the board thoroughly mined (we ruled that you couldn't put mines in the enemy's deployment zone, and nobody deigned to mine their own deployment zone).  This left a single channel on the north edge of the map between the two deployment zones unmined, and it was here that the fighting took place (though there was some speculation that I would run my cloaked ships through the minefields and flank, this didn't occur because the minefields weren't really protecting any objectives).

Both sides deployed; the Fleet With No Name in a line in front of the Nations of Earth, and the Crazy Empire on the north side of the channel in close formation and the Eldar in loose formation on the south side of the channel.

Turn 1:
This was our first time playing with plotted movement, so there was a bit of consternation and confusion here.  We considered implementing a time limit on plotting in later turns, but it wasn't necessary once we got the hang of it.  Both fleets advanced cautiously to about 18 hexes distance, but the Urr-Um overextended itself and was obliterated by the forward firepower of the Elysiums.  Tim's long-range missiles did minimal damage to the enemy.

Turn 2:
Both fleets rushed at each other, though the Eldar cloaked while doing so.  The range closed to six between the leading elements of both fleets, and close-range weapons were fired by all.  The Heartbreaker and the Fiddlesticks were obliterated by missile barrages, railguns, hadron guns (misread as hard-on guns...  sigh), and miscellaneous other weaponry, and the Swift Mongoose was nearly destroyed (1 hull at the end of shooting).  Tim rolled horribly for his shooting, but managed to destroy or cripple three of the Elysiums, scoring us 312 VP.  The almost complete destruction of the Crazy Fleet won the enemy around 300 VP.  The independent fighters failed to inflict any damage, but pulled a good amount of enemy fire and were not destroyed.  Tim thinks scenario is unwinnable for offense, and is greatly frustrated by his 5+ ACC weapons and shields 1 (compared to Alex's 3+ ACC plasma weapons and 3 shields).

Turn 3:
Enemy fleet closed for the kill on the Swift Mongoose, Eldar fleet decloaked behind their lines.  The Mongoose was destroyed, but managed to damage one of Matt's frigates and his light cruiser (but not enough for crippling to be probable).  Fire from the two Eldar cruisers crippled both of the ships Tim had damaged, as well as another of Matt's frigates, putting us just over 600 VP.  Fire from the Eldar frigate was wasted on the Avalon's 5 shield rating, and the rear guns of the UES heavy cruiser laid waste to one of the Solarises.  This, combined with the destruction of the Mongoose by its forward-facing guns, put the enemy at around 650 VP, scoring them a marginal victory (technically a draw, but they were ahead in VP, so slightly in their favor).  Tim concluded "Hey, you used me as bait!"  And I shrugged and said "Eldar."

Despite earlier consternation, Matt and Tim both enjoyed the game and have started building custom fleets in preparation for a summer campaign.  I finally fielded my Eldar with some success (in previous games, they've been annihilated utterly), and Alex concluded that he'd finally found a good fleet balance.  And so good times were had by all.