So we played second Centauri vs EA game. We decided to up the ante and play 6 point battle game
Didn't anybody tell you I'm also megalomaniac?-) So the fleets:Earth Alliance:
EAS Charax - Omega Heavy Destroyer
EAS Arden - Apollo
EAS Wellington - Nova
EAS Torus - Nova
EAS Jacquel - Hyperion Pulse Cruiser
EAS Galadriel - Hyperion Pulse Cruiser
EAS Intruder - Chronos
EAS Radiant Light - Chronos
EAS Wayward - Olympus Corvete
EAS Trident - Sagittarius
EAS Robin Hood - Sagittarius
That's a lot of ships. Scary amount of SAP precise missiles as well...Hyperions also were pulse variants. Interesting. Pair of Chronos as well. Reasonable firepower and hull 6. Hmmm...
Centauri Republic:
Aurelius - Octurion
Valeria - Primus
Sulostor - Sulust
Elator - Elutarian
Perfectus - Prefect
Convintor - Prefect
Laurelia - Maximus
Erindor - Maximus
Darelia - Darkner
As is probably obvious is that Octurion and Primus, supported by Sulust, will be core of my plan.
"Jump completed. Enemy is located near the planet as expected. Read 9, repeat 9 energy signals. One is extremely large." sensory officer read out.
"Is the large one the Valeria?" Mattheson asked. "That's negative. Identification markings say it's Aurelius! Valeria is on the other side of the centauri line.".
Aurelius...Flagships of Centauri's here. If they could knock that ship out Centauri assault could lose its wind instantly. Mattheson checked his positions and saw assault force had emerged from hyperspace as expected. And he cursed realising his ships was far from the Aurelius with huge asteroid belt between them. It would take a while to get round them and Centauri ships led by Valeria might have something to say about that. Atleast second battle group led by Arden was in position to strike the huge monster.
Well well. First terrain. We plumped for fairly large amount of it. On right and bit top there was 4" planet with 2 moons(though moons weren't placed in crucial positions). In addition we had 4 asteroid belts. One was on top-left corner(not so important). Then density 9 and 8 side by side with ~12" gap between them running diagonically from top left to bottom-right. Finally density 8 field near the bottom edge and directly from the planet. We deployed corner to corner with roughly 24" between the forces with Centauri being top-right and EA coming from bottom-left(fluffwise from jump points but we didn't want to limit them since that would have been just favouring centauris).
I won initiave(wohoo! Maybe my luck there turned from last game) and seeing EA force split into two groups I started to deploy my ships. EA came in 2 groups aiming to go between the 2 clear paths between asteroids. Left group was composed of Apollo with Olympus behind it and flanked by Sagittariuses from both sides. Wellington, a nova to right, and Jacquel, a hyperion to left, flanked the 2 sagitarius. The task force on right was led by Omega, flanked by 2 chronos, and then further to right were Torus and Galadriel, the other nova and hyperion.
I deployed the darkner into extreme top to flank the missile group(that's a lot of missiles btw...) while Octurion and Sulust prepared to duck it out with them directly. They were supported by Maximus Laurelia. Then between the 2 paths were both Prefect ships. And finally facing the Omega led group(or shoot'em'up group as I refered them) were Elutarian and Primus along with Erindor, the second Maximus.
There. Lots of ships, lots of missiles, lots of beams and what seems to promise closer game.
"Mattheson here. Enemy force is larger than expected. Nevertheless we shall engage them in battle. Arden. Your task is to destroy or atleast delay the Aurelius. Hold it and its escort up until we can come to help you. Intruder and Radiant Light. Provide support but beware. Those centauris pack a lot of firepower. Don't take any chances. We..." Mattheson flew off his chair as ship jerked violently. Valerius had opened up with it's lasers and already capacitors had been damaged extremely badly and fuel systems were ruptured. Ships speed was already decreasing noticably. From the screens he saw main weapons had locked on to enemy and yelling fire Charax fired up it's heavy lasers at the Valerius but only glanced on the bulkheads.
Dramatic start to say the least. Primus scored 8 hits to Omega(thank you CAF!) which resulted in 3 criticals(-2 speed twice and -4 speed) while Omega scored just 1 hit which resulted in bulkhead hit. Omega was already 2/3 toward being crippled...
"On the far left Darkner, though under steady fire from the two sagitarius missile cruisers, cut through Hyperion EAS Jacquel slowing the ship a bit. However greater disaster struct Earth Alliance as Aurelius opened up on the Apollo Arden and damaged the energy capacitators of the weapons. This showed it's effect when the weapons failed to lock on to the Octurion and couldn't shoot for a while."[/i]
Okay. This has got to be one of the luckiest turns I have had. Omega nearly crippled and virtually sitting duck and Apollo needs to roll 4+ to shoot. And of course it failed(we incidentally rolled what would have happened if it WOULD have been able to fire. Not good when it was CAF'ing. 6 hits, 3 criticals. Criticals would have been 6-4, 6-3 and 4-3. So that one critical proved to be very crucial...
Elator fired up salvo of ballistic torpedoes toward the Torus and with unnerving accuracy high-tech torpedoes careered straight into the engine sections disabling them completely, leaving the now very sorry looking Nova drifting dead in space.
Bejezus what a turn. If last game was a slaughterhose this seems to be becoming even worse. Let's see. One nova disabled and won't be doing anything next turn. Omega near crippled. Apollo has trouble shooting next turn minimum. And centauri? Darkner suffered bit of damage and Primus needs bit of new paintjob.
Let's see if turn 2 is any better for EA.
"Arden to Sagitariuses. Hold your position and load up those missiles fast. Wellington and Wayward. If we can't destroy some of those ships and fast we are dead. Advance at all speed and blow something up for me. Internal: This is captain speaking. With our weapons half-dead and Aurelius approaching we don't stand much of stand unless we survive. Close all blast doors and prepare for ride of your life. Jacquel? See how that Darkner is flanking our positions. Turn around and move to it's rear. I'm counting you to destroy it."
Tactical screen didn't show promising picture captain Lucius noted. Omega was being left behind and centauris were closing in for a kill. Chronoses were aiming to take battle to enemy but with pair of Prefects closing it might end up in disaster as well. As he watched Octurion moved up closer and...Yes it took up perfect firing positions near the Wayward. As he watched twin arrays and matter cannons obliterated ship before it had had time to even fire. Shrinking he saw flashes indicating laser fire and...Yes. His ship started to shudder violently. News came in indicating multiple fires but this time it seemed damage was less than moments ago. Omega flashed in the screen as it fired up its main lasers...Lasers once again just bounced from the Valeria but heavy pulse cannons finally found something in range. Prefect identified as Convintor shuddered as engines were damaged as the Prefect opened up on the Chronos. Most of the shots bounced off the armour or were intercepted but matter cannons managed to cause slight damage but even as Lucius sighed pair of beams struct out of the Prefect. It must have hit reactor or something but the EAS Radiant Light was simply annihilated in huge explosion that took out two flights of thunderbolts nearby.
No I'm not rigging this game despite what might seem. Prefect who was CAF'ing got 3 hits out of which 1 was critical. 6-6 critical and 28 damage later Chronos was no more.
"Captain Lucius to engineer crew. I would suggest that you get your acts together and repair those weapons NOW! They are still not working and enemy is bearing down on us!" Damn this situation was frustrating. Octurion was closing up fast yet his missiles couldn't be fired as targeting solution couldn't be entered. Alongside nova accompanying his force suffered catastrophic hit to reactors and this nova was dead in space as well. They were being massacred like...Well like ants!
This is just getting frigging unbelieavable. Another speed 0 no special action to nova. Though atleast this one is in range of something so isn't total disaster...
EAS Wellington opened up with it's pulse cannons. Though it couldn't produce anymore firepower from the engines it could still fire. Port weapons opened up on the approaching Darkner while forward weapons fired at Sulust. Darkner rode through hail of pulse fire taking some damage but it was not enough to shoot at the Arden as well causing series of explosion among weapon ports killing swathes of crew and damaging one of the missile tubes. Though small satisfaction could be had from Jacquel crippling Darkner Ardens situation was becoming impossible as Wellington suffered crippling damage from Laurelia
On the other side of battle EAS Intruder opened up on Convintor but found his effort to be minimally effective at best. However it was better than effort of EAS Galadriel who somehow managed to repeatedly bulkheads of Erindor with it's massive pulse firepower.
However it was becoming the beginning of end as Valeria claimed life of EAS Charax with concentrated serie of laser beams. Drifting, it would eventually crash into the atmosphere of planet they were fighting over.
"Engineering. Please tell me you have good news?" Lucius didn't hope for much and when he learned problem was still being fixed he sighed. Question was mostly moot point anyway. Sulust was already firing and from the screams of internal coms damage was serious. He was going to die, here and today, that much he already knew. If only he could pay them back somehow. "Weapon control. Have you managed to find a lock. You have? FIRE AT WILL!" Missiles flew toward Octurion and Lucius hoped to see telling sign from critical hit. One missile managed to hit the huge beast but if it caused any serious damage he could not tell. With sigh he saw incoming shots from Octurion approaching. Interceptors were already working at full but they could not hold. "For the Earth!" he whispered just before everything blacked out. Arden drifted onward, all of its crew dead with EAS Robin Hood suffering same fate from Octurions battle lasers.[/i]
At this point EA player opted to surrender. Battle was extremely lopsided as the EA lost pretty much all of his serious firepower to number of criticals. Omega suffering such a huge damage in first turn didn't help him either. In the end what remained were:
EA:
1/3 dead Nova with both Prefects aiming for kill
Both Hyperions with minimal damage
Second sagittarius with no damage
Near crippled nova
Centauri meanwhile had lost NOTHING. Darkner was crippled and one prefect and maximus suffered slight damage but big ships were nearly intact. Primus had suffered ONE damage from bulkhead hit from Omega in first turn. Though have to say a lot was due to the luck...
But sheesh. I think we'll introduce help from ISA(including it's member worlds. If nothing else works I'll drop 5 point warfleet of minbaris. That should stop centauris for a while
) just to ensure our little campaign won't be too quickly over(or be dragged unfeasibly long with massacre victory after massacre victory).