Call to arms: Centaurit vs EA. Englantia ja pitkä
Lähetetty: La 15.07.2006 00:11
Year 2268. Drakh war was in full swing and Earth Alliance is reeling under ferocious attacks from vengefull Drakh's. However Drakhs are not only problem as Centauri's starts to be more aggressive as well, controlled secretly by the Drakh's. Preparing for possible attack from Centauri Earth deploys number of task forces into border between Earth Alliance and Centauri Republic. In the end it was task force under control of Captain Owens which faced first wave of Centauri ships.
So with ACTA rules, albeit non-revised, it was time for first big game. Big being in this case standard 5 point raid
. I opted for Centauri fleet which is my favorite while I faced might of Earth Alliance. The fleets:
Earth:
EAS Mannerheim - Hyperion class cruiser
EAS Galadan - Hyperion class cruiser
EAS Nagasaki - Nova class dreadnought
EAS Helsinki - Nova class dreadnought
EAS Kalevala - Olympus corvete
EAS Thor - Olympus corvete
Centauri:
Valeria - Primus class battle cruiser
Sulustor - Sulust class escort destroyer
Bucharest - Vorchan class warship
Coudan Ray - Vorchan class warship
Ahab Rowanor - Kutai class gunship
Coular - Kutai class gunship
Captain Owens walked into his command chair. Word was that hostilities between them and Centauri rebublic might start any moment so his fleet was already on yellow alert. "Fleet!" he thought. Bunch of old ships which would strugle to hold back any sort of serious attack. His ships, EAS Mannerheim in particular, was on peak condition but there was no going around the fact it was composed of old hulls.
"Captain. Energy peaks near the asteroid clouds. 3 jump points opening up! Centauri ships emerging from jump points. I read 6 ships."
"Captain to fleet. Red alert! Red alert! Full power to weapons and turn around toward them. Order launch of fighters. Prepare to engage!"
For celestial terrain just bunch of rocks around where centauri's were deployed. Centauri's lost initiave roll(bummer) so had to deploy first. I put Primus into center supported by Sulust(all those battle lasers are nice) while Vorchans and Kutai's went more into left. Especially Kutai's(I don't want them to be near enemies too fast). Earth then deployed Hyperions onto my right flank, Nova's into center and Olympuses into my left though more back than other ships(nasty missiles).
"Captain. Big sensor contact has been identified as Valeria, one of their Primus class battle cruisers!" News was enough to turn Owens blood cold. That ship was vastly more powerfull than any of his ships. Though rest of ships seemed to be smaller this was dire turn of events.
"Olympuses. Start concentrating fire toward that battle cruiser. You have only weapons that can reach them now so make them count. Novas move ahead at full speed though be vary, those centauri ships coming your way packs one hell of a laser punch. Galadan? With me. Let's get into flank of those centauri ships."
Another lost initiave roll for centauri's(what that +3 modifier is supposed to be anyway?-) Doesn't seem to be much of use here...). Primus and Sulust moved cautiously forward while concentrating fire toward leading nova. Both nova's closed blast door(other in case Sulust would CAF against him). Centauri smaller ships moved fast ahead and would be next turn in striking distance. Hyperions prepared to move into side of Centauri line.
Missiles flew from Olympus toward Primus with horrendous effect. 4 missiles flew against the mighty ship. Interceptors stopped 2 of them but remaining 2 caused explosions around hull and engine compartment. Valeria clearly slowed down after last salvo had passed. In return battle lasers cut into the EAS Nagasaki and despite blast doors having been closed ship suffered horrendous amount of damage and with Sulust joining into fray over half the crew from Nagasaki lay dead.
Very nice shooting for Centauri. Primus alone caused 9 hits which prompted into 2 criticals(including crew slaying one). That nova is almost dead ship already. Though soon Earth will get into range...
Two fleets continued their approach. Kutai's continued their flanking manouver while Vorchans dived in to attack Olympuses. Novas kept moving ahead to bring their weapons to bear. EAS Helsinki turned around to correct course a bit. EAS Galadan manouvered to have Sulust in sight for its heavy lasers. And between fleets fighters engaged as starfuries engaged sentri fighters to clear the way for thunderbolt wings.
Let me state I lost yet another initiave roll here...
"EAS Nagasagi here. We are in range. Opening fire!" Laser-pulse arrays opened up and fired salvo of pulse fire toward Sulostor and despite valiant effort from interceptors 3 pulses hit into back of the ship causing slight damage. In return Sulostor fired up against Galadan and crippled the the ship in one salvo! Return fire was nothing short of unspectacular.
That was nice. Salvo itself wasn't that spectacular except it also happened to cause 6-3 critical. 8 damage coupled to rest caused it to be crippled ship...
Battle lasers of Valeria opened up once more. Poor Nagasaki didn't even have time to think when ship exploded spectaculary. EAS Helsinki was caught in a blast but escaped unscathed while fighter wings had few scary moments before blast dissipated, barely missing them.
Ooookay. I should have split fire there Before close blast door rolls I had caused _48_ points of damage and 30 crew loss. Was helped by 6-6 critical...Lucky for EA though second nova was hit 4 times all were bulkhead hits.
Meanwhile Valeria was subjected into another salvo of missiles from Thor. And this time there was enemy for secondary weapons as well and Bucharest was nearly crippled under heavy firepower from Earth Alliance vessel while Kalevala was slightly damaged by said Vorchan. Biggest damage was however to damage systems which would cut the effect of firepower, fact made all too clear when missiles failed to even hit Primus. Fire from Kalevala nearly finished the Bucharest but Kalevala's engines were then disabled from approaching Coudan Ray.
Damn those Olympuses soak up damage. Okay low hull score but lots of hits. Still I'm feeling pretty confident now.
"Gunnery. Tell me we have a range!" Captain Owens demanded. From his sensors he could see battle was not going well. EAS Nagasaki had exploded and that damn Primus was still practically intact. Hearing answer he cursed again. Hyperion's kept moving forward hoping to hurt that monster before it would finish them off but to his dismay Primus seemed to forget about Nova and turned toward them. Nova turned hard to right and moved forward, preparing his port(or was it starboard) weapons against monstorous battle cruiser. Centauri Vorchans, satisfied at their work against Olympus headed toward Nova while Kutais moved in for a kill against disabled Kalevala.
But Owens plan fell apart as Primus opened up once more crippling EAS Mannerheim in a single volley. Aft weapons went online as well but at this point that didn't really concern Captain Owens. Galadan valiantly tried to hurt Sulustor but crippled ship couldn't muster enough firepower to really cut through interceptors. Sulustor finished up the job by firing it's lasers against both Galadan and Mannerheim. Mannerheim exploded with big blast nearly taking out Galadan, job that was finished by Twin Arrays of Sulustor.
EA's last hope was the EAS Helsinki that had manouvered itself into perfect position with targets on all sides. Though lasers didn't manage to hurt Primus badly Vorchan Coudan Ray exploded spectaculary. Ahab Rowanor managed to dodge most of the shots so survived only lightly hurt. Sulustor also got it's hull dented badly.
Let me state that Vorchan exploded in "not" nice way. 7 hits. 5 criticals. Say something about luck. 6-5 critical caused enough damage points to remove ship out of game.
Thor was meanwhile in similar situation. Missiles flew against Primus again and with interceptors weakened by nova both missiles hit home. Alas it was only glancing damage with no immediate effect. Bucharest exploded up. Ahab Rowanor suffered yet another glancing hit but so far ship was still under peak effectivity while badly damaged Olympus EAS Kalevala exploded under hail of matter cannon shots.
I'm starting to like Kutai's. Skirmish ship with 6 twin linked shot and 6 AP DD shots? Yes thank you!
But without sentries to harm them starfuries and single flight of thunderbolts could attack Sulustor with ease. Alas for EA all their firepower resulted into only light damage.
Lucky there. 10 shots needing 5+ for rerolls + thunderbolt and only 3 points of damage. Dices not kind for EA today.
"Captain Haynes of EAS Helsinki here. I'm opening a jump point. All ships retreat. Repeat. All ships retreat!" Bitter order but staying here would be suicide. He just hoped they would make out alive. With sight of jump point opening every Centauri ship moved toward EAS Helsinki. Twin arrays from Valeria were mostly deflected but once more battle lasers opened up causing horrible crew losses and big holes into the hull. EAS Thor concentrated on hurting Primus but only medium damage was caused and once more missiles were intercepted by interceptors.
Lucky intercepting there. 1 missile hit, 6 came up. Huzah!
EAS Helsinki rocked hard as massed matter cannon fire from two Kutai's hit hard. Explosions hit ship hard and after all was done ship was left to Skeleton crew, barely flying into open jump point while fighter squadrons took out Ahab Rowanor. EAS Thor found to their dismay jump point closing before they could get into there. Surrounded by vastly superior fleet they signalled their surrender...
Final score:
Centauri: 50
EA: 15
Well what can I say. The battle really went well for me. EA was hamstrung with it's lack of long range weapons(only ones being boresight lasers from Hyperion and missiles on Olympus. And even Hyperion's were out of range for a while) while Centauri long range firepower was hideously effective. Smaller ships did their job as well as they hurt Olympus 1 first badly and then blowing it up and proceeded to skeleton crew that Nova.
But damn those Battle Lasers are nasty. Especially when you have bucketload of them like in Primus. That ship single handedly won me the game.
So with ACTA rules, albeit non-revised, it was time for first big game. Big being in this case standard 5 point raid
. I opted for Centauri fleet which is my favorite while I faced might of Earth Alliance. The fleets:Earth:
EAS Mannerheim - Hyperion class cruiser
EAS Galadan - Hyperion class cruiser
EAS Nagasaki - Nova class dreadnought
EAS Helsinki - Nova class dreadnought
EAS Kalevala - Olympus corvete
EAS Thor - Olympus corvete
Centauri:
Valeria - Primus class battle cruiser
Sulustor - Sulust class escort destroyer
Bucharest - Vorchan class warship
Coudan Ray - Vorchan class warship
Ahab Rowanor - Kutai class gunship
Coular - Kutai class gunship
Captain Owens walked into his command chair. Word was that hostilities between them and Centauri rebublic might start any moment so his fleet was already on yellow alert. "Fleet!" he thought. Bunch of old ships which would strugle to hold back any sort of serious attack. His ships, EAS Mannerheim in particular, was on peak condition but there was no going around the fact it was composed of old hulls.
"Captain. Energy peaks near the asteroid clouds. 3 jump points opening up! Centauri ships emerging from jump points. I read 6 ships."
"Captain to fleet. Red alert! Red alert! Full power to weapons and turn around toward them. Order launch of fighters. Prepare to engage!"
For celestial terrain just bunch of rocks around where centauri's were deployed. Centauri's lost initiave roll(bummer) so had to deploy first. I put Primus into center supported by Sulust(all those battle lasers are nice) while Vorchans and Kutai's went more into left. Especially Kutai's(I don't want them to be near enemies too fast). Earth then deployed Hyperions onto my right flank, Nova's into center and Olympuses into my left though more back than other ships(nasty missiles).
"Captain. Big sensor contact has been identified as Valeria, one of their Primus class battle cruisers!" News was enough to turn Owens blood cold. That ship was vastly more powerfull than any of his ships. Though rest of ships seemed to be smaller this was dire turn of events.
"Olympuses. Start concentrating fire toward that battle cruiser. You have only weapons that can reach them now so make them count. Novas move ahead at full speed though be vary, those centauri ships coming your way packs one hell of a laser punch. Galadan? With me. Let's get into flank of those centauri ships."
Another lost initiave roll for centauri's(what that +3 modifier is supposed to be anyway?-) Doesn't seem to be much of use here...). Primus and Sulust moved cautiously forward while concentrating fire toward leading nova. Both nova's closed blast door(other in case Sulust would CAF against him). Centauri smaller ships moved fast ahead and would be next turn in striking distance. Hyperions prepared to move into side of Centauri line.
Missiles flew from Olympus toward Primus with horrendous effect. 4 missiles flew against the mighty ship. Interceptors stopped 2 of them but remaining 2 caused explosions around hull and engine compartment. Valeria clearly slowed down after last salvo had passed. In return battle lasers cut into the EAS Nagasaki and despite blast doors having been closed ship suffered horrendous amount of damage and with Sulust joining into fray over half the crew from Nagasaki lay dead.
Very nice shooting for Centauri. Primus alone caused 9 hits which prompted into 2 criticals(including crew slaying one). That nova is almost dead ship already. Though soon Earth will get into range...
Two fleets continued their approach. Kutai's continued their flanking manouver while Vorchans dived in to attack Olympuses. Novas kept moving ahead to bring their weapons to bear. EAS Helsinki turned around to correct course a bit. EAS Galadan manouvered to have Sulust in sight for its heavy lasers. And between fleets fighters engaged as starfuries engaged sentri fighters to clear the way for thunderbolt wings.
Let me state I lost yet another initiave roll here...
"EAS Nagasagi here. We are in range. Opening fire!" Laser-pulse arrays opened up and fired salvo of pulse fire toward Sulostor and despite valiant effort from interceptors 3 pulses hit into back of the ship causing slight damage. In return Sulostor fired up against Galadan and crippled the the ship in one salvo! Return fire was nothing short of unspectacular.
That was nice. Salvo itself wasn't that spectacular except it also happened to cause 6-3 critical. 8 damage coupled to rest caused it to be crippled ship...
Battle lasers of Valeria opened up once more. Poor Nagasaki didn't even have time to think when ship exploded spectaculary. EAS Helsinki was caught in a blast but escaped unscathed while fighter wings had few scary moments before blast dissipated, barely missing them.
Ooookay. I should have split fire there
Before close blast door rolls I had caused _48_ points of damage and 30 crew loss. Was helped by 6-6 critical...Lucky for EA though second nova was hit 4 times all were bulkhead hits.Meanwhile Valeria was subjected into another salvo of missiles from Thor. And this time there was enemy for secondary weapons as well and Bucharest was nearly crippled under heavy firepower from Earth Alliance vessel while Kalevala was slightly damaged by said Vorchan. Biggest damage was however to damage systems which would cut the effect of firepower, fact made all too clear when missiles failed to even hit Primus. Fire from Kalevala nearly finished the Bucharest but Kalevala's engines were then disabled from approaching Coudan Ray.
Damn those Olympuses soak up damage. Okay low hull score but lots of hits. Still I'm feeling pretty confident now.
"Gunnery. Tell me we have a range!" Captain Owens demanded. From his sensors he could see battle was not going well. EAS Nagasaki had exploded and that damn Primus was still practically intact. Hearing answer he cursed again. Hyperion's kept moving forward hoping to hurt that monster before it would finish them off but to his dismay Primus seemed to forget about Nova and turned toward them. Nova turned hard to right and moved forward, preparing his port(or was it starboard) weapons against monstorous battle cruiser. Centauri Vorchans, satisfied at their work against Olympus headed toward Nova while Kutais moved in for a kill against disabled Kalevala.
But Owens plan fell apart as Primus opened up once more crippling EAS Mannerheim in a single volley. Aft weapons went online as well but at this point that didn't really concern Captain Owens. Galadan valiantly tried to hurt Sulustor but crippled ship couldn't muster enough firepower to really cut through interceptors. Sulustor finished up the job by firing it's lasers against both Galadan and Mannerheim. Mannerheim exploded with big blast nearly taking out Galadan, job that was finished by Twin Arrays of Sulustor.
EA's last hope was the EAS Helsinki that had manouvered itself into perfect position with targets on all sides. Though lasers didn't manage to hurt Primus badly Vorchan Coudan Ray exploded spectaculary. Ahab Rowanor managed to dodge most of the shots so survived only lightly hurt. Sulustor also got it's hull dented badly.
Let me state that Vorchan exploded in "not" nice way. 7 hits. 5 criticals. Say something about luck. 6-5 critical caused enough damage points to remove ship out of game.
Thor was meanwhile in similar situation. Missiles flew against Primus again and with interceptors weakened by nova both missiles hit home. Alas it was only glancing damage with no immediate effect. Bucharest exploded up. Ahab Rowanor suffered yet another glancing hit but so far ship was still under peak effectivity while badly damaged Olympus EAS Kalevala exploded under hail of matter cannon shots.
I'm starting to like Kutai's. Skirmish ship with 6 twin linked shot and 6 AP DD shots? Yes thank you!
But without sentries to harm them starfuries and single flight of thunderbolts could attack Sulustor with ease. Alas for EA all their firepower resulted into only light damage.
Lucky there. 10 shots needing 5+ for rerolls + thunderbolt and only 3 points of damage. Dices not kind for EA today.
"Captain Haynes of EAS Helsinki here. I'm opening a jump point. All ships retreat. Repeat. All ships retreat!" Bitter order but staying here would be suicide. He just hoped they would make out alive. With sight of jump point opening every Centauri ship moved toward EAS Helsinki. Twin arrays from Valeria were mostly deflected but once more battle lasers opened up causing horrible crew losses and big holes into the hull. EAS Thor concentrated on hurting Primus but only medium damage was caused and once more missiles were intercepted by interceptors.
Lucky intercepting there. 1 missile hit, 6 came up. Huzah!
EAS Helsinki rocked hard as massed matter cannon fire from two Kutai's hit hard. Explosions hit ship hard and after all was done ship was left to Skeleton crew, barely flying into open jump point while fighter squadrons took out Ahab Rowanor. EAS Thor found to their dismay jump point closing before they could get into there. Surrounded by vastly superior fleet they signalled their surrender...
Final score:
Centauri: 50
EA: 15
Well what can I say. The battle really went well for me. EA was hamstrung with it's lack of long range weapons(only ones being boresight lasers from Hyperion and missiles on Olympus. And even Hyperion's were out of range for a while) while Centauri long range firepower was hideously effective. Smaller ships did their job as well as they hurt Olympus 1 first badly and then blowing it up and proceeded to skeleton crew that Nova.
But damn those Battle Lasers are nasty. Especially when you have bucketload of them like in Primus. That ship single handedly won me the game.