The battle was joined, the forces have clashed and the results are in.
We started the battle like we start most battles; lead elements 100 hexes apart each with the entire forces at velocity 10. This allows for plenty of maneuvering and allows for a more realistic depiction of combat in open space. All fighter and small craft start the game already launched. My opponent, the Colonel, starts his task force in three squadrons; the main force of the Fox (LAS Immaculate) and one GI (LADS Lauren G. Abercrombie) holds the center as Blue Squadron whilst Red Squadron (LADS Jorgen Bernabé and LADS Frida Caraballo) and Green Squadron (LADS Anastasia Darnell and LADS Murdoch Egbert) flank Blue at a distance of 20 hexes on either side. Each squadron moves in echelon with one hex between them. The fighters form up in squadrons between the three primary squadrons.
On the other side of the map, Agamemnon-class FWLS Penthesilea maintains a tight formation with its dropships, keeping the Vengeance-class FWLDS Heri Apab and Overlord-class FWLDS Alberta Marik in its same hex within its sensor shadow, with the Hannibal-class FWLDS Lime Archipelago two hexes behind it and the Interdictor-class FWLDS Oriente Nadir two hexes in front, with all fighters in the same hexes as the Penthe and the Oriente.
Advanced aerospace movement rules are in play, as are individual weapon ranges and ECM/sensor shadow rules. Individual initiative is also used, modified by craft type.
First turn, the Lyran fighters boost forward the FWL force, the FWL force breaks left and boosts hard to prevent itself from getting flanked, maintaining tight formation. Red, Blue and Green squadrons begin a pivot to vector them into the FWL force while maintaining their formation.
After a few turns of maneuvering, the FWL force releases its fighters and Oriente to intercept the inbound Lyran fighters, Penthe makes aggressive maneuvers to bring it into extreme capital range with Red Squadron the following turn and the remaining dropships maintain their formation, following Penthe a few hexes behind. Red squadron and Abercrombie launch Krakens.
The furball ensues; Red’s fighters engage the FWL’s interceptors at short capital ranges, Blue’s at Medium. Though heavily outnumbered, the League fighters have an advantage; their mission is to destroy as many Lyran fighters as possible; to this end they fire their entire inventory of AAArrows at the heaviest enemy fighter squadrons, while the Lyrans only use their LAA missiles, since their Arrows are meant for the enemy warship and droppers. All League ships engage the inbound fighters with massive firepower from everything at their disposal, from their AAA bays to the massive capital bays set to bracket fire; fatal thresholds decimate the inbound fighters, even as League squadrons shatter. At the end of the turn, the command is given for the League fighter squadrons to break into individual (capital) fighters in order to cover as many Lyran squadrons as possible (we broke out a roll of dimes, marked with a sharpie to represent the surviving fighters).
Blue Squadron opens up as Abercrombie boosts to extreme range. Red squadron attempts to open range between it and Penthe. Penthe brings her broadside to bear and fires three capital laser bays and her naval gauss bay, hitting Bernabé on the starboard side with one laser bay and the gauss bay, causing a combined 410 points of damage and forcing a thresholding check (damaging its docking collar). Return fire with Barracudas fails to overcome Penthe’s ECM and AMS/PDW. Red Squadron’s Krakens take heavy damage from several AA bays and, combined with ECM and AMS, fail to hit Penthe.
Red Squadron boosts out of range, firing screen launchers to cover their movement and launches a second Kraken from each ship. Fighters die in droves, as heavier single fighters inflict fatal thresholds on lighter fighter squadrons and heavy squadrons hunt down the lone birds. Abercrombie’s Kraken slams into Apab, inflicting heavy damage on her nose armour; thresholding doesn’t work, but capital missile-critting damages its avionics. Blue’s squadrons don’t play nice and use all their external ordnance on the League fighters. Oriente gets targeted by Abercrombie’s, Immaculate’s and Red’s barracudas at long range (but outside Oriente’s SCL/1 range), chewing away 80 points of armour off her port side and blowing away her cargo bay before she can vector out to open the range. Green’s fighters make a bee-line for Penthe. Apab, Lime and Anastasia boost together into a vector to open the range between them, the Immaculate and Red Squadron.
Green Squadrons fighters engage Penthe with their external missiles. Penthe presents its starboard broadside to them, as does Apab. Lime and Anastasia assume defensive positions against the inbound fighters of Green Squadron screaming in for a high-speed pass. Green and Blue Squadrons pour barracuda fire into the furball, with Immaculate targeting Oriente with her naval lasers, hitting the nose for armour damage only while two of three Krakens strike Oriente, inflicting armour damage, damaging the thrusters and taking its nose VSPL bay out of the fight. Red Squadron’s Krakens strike Penthe, damaging a fighter launch door and knocking the gravdeck out of commission. AAArrow, LAA and extreme conventional range fighter fire inflicts considerable damage on Penthe’s armour, but failing to penetrate even once. Bracketed fire and very heavy
AAA fire from Penthe, Lime, Apab, Anastasia and the league small craft (held in reserve in the sensor shadows of the larger craft) inflict very heavy damage on the fighter squadrons, destroying two outright and forcing the others to break up to avoid a similar fate.
Much to everyone’s surprise, at this point the “overwhelming†fighter advantage had essentially been neutralized. The remaining fighters continued to fight each other without affecting the rest of the battle. Oriente boosted from the main battle and, along with the League fighters threatened the Lyran small craft force, which had been shadowing the battle for an opportunity to strike.
Two more turns of ineffectual Kraken fire (they just couldn’t overcome the AAA damage/ECM/AMS/PDW combo without fighters distracting the gunners) as the two forces vectored around each other trying to gain an advantage. When the Colonel saw an opportunity to bring his formation in to “cap the T†on my force, I sprung my trap; boosting to an attack vector and maneuvering to present my undamaged broadside to his force, all units were within Long capital range of each other.
A rain of capital missiles came towards the Penthe; four out of five of Immaculate’s barracudas failed to hit, producing no crits. A cocktail of five White Sharks (love that critting mod) and five Killer Whales (very hard to kill with AMS) netted 11 capital points of damage and a damaged dropship collar, while Immaculate’s capital lasers and autocannon actually penetrated to the SI of the Penthe (notably, not the same facing hit by the missiles), killing its remaining grav deck and taking out the forward side ERPPC bay. Penthe’s return fire was murderous; Bernabé and Egbert were each hit by a NAC bay (60 points), with Egbert getting hit by an additional Naval Gauss and Bernabé by two NL55 bays. Both ships were instantly destroyed; Egbert cored through the nose, Bernabé through its undamaged side.
Darnell vectored out, firing its tail missile (and missing) as it boosted. Immaculate maneuvered to present a good broadside, Abercrombie shifted position to be further away from Penthe than Immaculate. Caraballo, knowing that it could never get out of range due to its vector, boosted in for a nose-first two-bay kiss. Penthe maneuvered to present its aft quarters towards Immaculate, protecting its exposed forward quarter. Simultaneously, she presented her least-damaged broadside at the approaching Caraballo.
The Lyran capital missiles were mostly neutralized by AAA/AMS/PDW/ECM from the League force (one of Abercrombie’s Killer whales hit, but just damaged armour).
Caraballo was engaged at medium capital range; she took 101 points of capital damage to her nose. She managed to inflict 24 points of damage on the Penthe (she missed with the SCC bay, hit with both others) but failed to penetrate the armour in any way before being cored. Darnell took a 30-capital point hit from a Naval Gauss in her tail damaging docking collar equipment. Abercrombie literally dodged a bullet when it got hit only by an 11-capital point naval laser bay; Immaculate got slammed with 80 capital points on the nose, losing the NACs located there and taking damage to its internal structure. Penthe survived that bay’s last volley with only armour damage.
It was agreed that further combat was pointless; the remaining two GI’s and the Fox might have been able to kill the Penthe, but they risked their own destruction in the process.
The Lyran fighters that survived were much too mauled and scattered after the furball to be much use – even if they did manage to take out most League fighters – and they would have been fodder for the League AAA fire.
Much game time (too much!) was spent with the fighter action, but when all is said and done, the fighters alone failed to do more than neutralize the enemy fighter formation; the addition of an Interdictor to support the League fighters had a HUGE impact on their effectiveness, as did breaking heavy fighter squads into singles and pairs to face lighter fighter squadrons. ECM had a huge impact on the battle, especially in concert with concentrated AMS/PDW fire. The problems with teleoperated missiles severely limited their usefulness; it was agreed that the AR10 launcher on the nose would have been better, since it could fire every turn. The boarding craft were not even an issue.
From the results of the battle, our combined assessment of the GI based on this one battle is that:
A) It would be better served replacing its nose SCC bay with additional missile/AAA systems all around and/or cargo/fuel to service its fighter wing.
B) Under absolutely no circumstances should the GI close to anywhere near capital long range with anything that can potentially kill it with one shot.
C) Capital ECM and even basic point defense greatly lessens the danger from capital or sub-capital missiles of any sort. Better AMS can render even the mightiest kraken a non-issue.
D) Even as “part of a systemâ€, the GI cannot deliver on its promise to be “deadly to most warships short of a heavy cruiser†any more than a foot rifle infantry trooper can claim to be “deadly to most assault ‘mechs under 85 tons†because he is part of a system that includes 83 other troopers just like him AND twelve 3026 Goblins with close air support and a lance of light ‘mechs.
What can the GI do? Well, it does work well against other PWS; it has strong AAA defenses, AMS and a well-rounded compliment. It works well as an escort carrier for warships short on fighters. As part of a task force (with a jumpship, a supply dropship and a lesser escort) it can serve well as a surrogate warship in state and patrol functions and can also work well as a commerce raider. In a pinch, it can engage some of the smallest and weakest canon warships with a reasonable chance of success, but you need to keep in mind that these ships are already obsolete in-universe, with overlarge cargo holds, weak armour, practically non-existent anti-fighter defenses and factually non-existent AMS.
