ADLER TAG AAR

Robertson, Brendan wrote:

> Yeeehaarrrrr!!!!!
> What was the approx. friendly casualty figures?

I plan on writing up a detailed AAR plus the thing is going to be
extrapolated into the story but......

We started at about 1 pm (w/ Prep) and it lasted till 10pm. We used my
living room floor covered with two GEOHEX star maps. (Got pictures) Any
space mini that was mounted was pressed into service on one side or the
other.	(I ran out of fighters so we used quarters with a tiny die
representing strength). (Dimes were used to track capital missiles,
small dice were used to track SMLs) Like I said last night we had 22
ships/30 ftrs of Kra'Vak (10500 pts) vs 44 ships/96 fighters NAC/NSL
(14,800 pts). Absolutely massive. We had burned two special space combat
music cds which were playing in the background. Tonight I will upload
some pics to the net for all to see.

The goal of the battle was to support and resolve the story so Kr'rt (my
opponent) was fighting under certain guidelines and constraints) The 1st
CAF entered the area along one side spread into four groups. On the left
was TF3 w/  2 BCs and two strike cruisers (SCs). On the right was TF1
with 2 CVs, 2 BCs, to Escort cruisers (ECs) and 8 DDs. In the middle was
TF1 with 4 SDs, 4 BCs and 2 ECs. Ahead of them was a "skirmish line"
(TF4) of 8 DD/Ms.

The plan of the 1st CAF was to take advantage of the KV Railgun Firing
arc limitations by enveloping them and to hitting them from outside
their FAs.

TURN ONE
The KV started out with all their forces broken into little 2 to 4 ship
squadrons in the center of the board. Their heavy forces consisted of at
least 4 SDs and 4 BBs. Their smallest ships were Cruisers (Vo'boks)

Turn one saw 1 CAF shaking out into different speeds so as to put the
two flanking TFs ahead of the center in sort of a double envelopment
move. The tightly massed and controlled KV force began some internal
manuevering. My guess is that they were planning on avoiding my SML
salvo at all costs.

TURN TWO
On the second turn, the Humans raced towards the enemy with both
flanking forces ahead of the center force. The KV concentrated most of
their heavy units on TF3. They wisely chose to keep their force together
and ignored TF1. There opened a long range fight since most of my SDs
and BCs were able to fire at extreme range though this was outside of KV
RG range. We scored some notable hits. Only TF3 received any return fire
and began taking damage. It was clear that the KV heavies were gonna try
and polish off this small force first which was fine by me as it allowed
the rest of my forces freedom of manuever They attempte dto drive their
whole fleet to the gap between TF3 and TF2 with an intent on hitting
TF2's flank. They showed littel regard for the missile destroyers of TF4
which would cost then dearly. I launched two massivfighter strikes.
Strike 1 consisted of 10 fighter groups (FG) while the second consisted
of 6 FGs.  2 FGs remained on BARCAP. Also I fired off the first SML
salvo, but the KV had anticipated this and were able to avoid any of the
missiles! However, this caused them to maneuver into an area where they
would pay heavily on the next turn.

TURN THREE
On the Third turn the fleets clashed. Another SML strike went out, and
its arrival was timed perfectly with both the fighter strikes and the
capital missiles. So here we had a large KV force within 12" of many of
my units but the deadly scatter guns had to concentrate on point
defense. Instead of spreading out missile and fighter attacks they were
ocnentrated on units so as to overwhelm PDS where possible. A line of
explosions erupted throughout the KV fleet as their ships took severe
damage. More importantly were were depleting the hated scatter guns
during the turns where we would be at close range. Still our fighters
had to contend with enemy fighters (handled by the escorts) and PDS and
we lost heavily. After that there were many ships streaming atmopsphere
(When you make your first threshold check, we used cottton whisps to
show that).

The Kra'vak were intent on destroying the 4 ships in TF3. The first NSL
BC winked out of existence. However the KV took very heavy damaged as
one Vo'bok exploded and one of their BBs went dead. The 1st CAF main
beam line opened up with 4 SDs and 4 BCs. The effect on the already
damaged KV line was devastating.

Oddly enough I notice that the KV preferred to mass their fire on
individual ships. They concentrated on heavies ignoring lighter units (I
lost 3 DD/Ms the whole battle..each only required one hit.) The SDs and
TF3 drew almost all of the KV attention. In particular they concentrated
on the KRS Markgraf, 1st CAFs flagship. I can only deduce that they were
picking up the increased EM traffic emanating for that ship and figured
that destroying it would throw the rest of the fleet into confusion. The
SD soaked up punishing fire, and Adm Von Bulow was killed in a bridge
hit. Even after she was drifting helpless they continued to pound her
until she exploded, but this  pretty much left other ships relatively
damage free. Command devolved down to Adm Bellamy in TF1 on the RNS
Hornet.

TURN FOUR
As the turn four order writing phase was in progress, the KV player
rolled one die. He rolled even which was good for him. Standing up
across the room I tossed eight pennies into the space behind his fleet
and told him that his ships were detecting odd fluctuations to the space
back there. This allowed him time to react with at least part of his
fleet, but not knowing what they were I think he just ignored them.
After order writing, eight small ships decloaked behind his force, one
on each penny. This was my pig boat squadron, lead by the Kohl. Seven
torpedo boats had been outfitted with the new technology. Each of the
pig boats carried 2 SMLs and a PDS.(I might change this to submunitions
packs)

SO turn four stated with another SML strike from front and read, as well
as renewed fighter attacks and capital missiles. The KV return fire was
very noticeably lessened, having extended many of their Scatterguns on
last turn's attacks against missiles, fighters and ships. This attack
broke the Kra'Vak Fleet's back. Missiles and fighters concentrated on
the KV heavies. I think two SDs or BBs outright exploded and most of the
rest went on second threshold checks. The main enagement was suitably
bloody. The enemy continued to ignore my light units (thank god they
chose to ignore the tiny but very high value cloak capable pigboats and
the Kohl!), and concentrate on the SDs. The KRS Bismarck was destroyed.
The KRS Fredrich had to dump her power core. The rest of TF3 was put out
of action. (1 SC dead, 2 BCs dead and 1 SC drifting)  But everyone else
was now hammering the KV. My SDs and BCs concentrated their fire on the
KV cruiser blowing them up or shooting them apart one at a time. TF1
which had been alone on the right flank finally got itself turned around
and was entering action with some long range fire from the
battlecruisers.

Turn Five saw the KV manuevering themselves for escape. FTL drives began
to  cook up. A final SML salvo was avoided by them. However the fighters
made desperate attacks against the retreating enemies finishing off
stricken cruisers. TF1 was in full pursuits. Again that little KV fire
their was was concentrated on the last 2 allied SDs, ignoring the deadly
stings of my pursuing lighter units. 1st TF was directed to board any KV
ship that was drifting. I needed more intel!

On Turn six the last of the KV ships attempted FTL. The one cruiser that
covered the retreat as destroyed by fighters and dd fire. My heavies
concentrated on the rest, 3 KV SDs died before they could escape.

On turn seven there were five abandoned KV FGs left in local space as
well as one drifting KV Vobok. Bridge was down, life support out. TF1
hove to and commenced boarding. The KV ship surrendered! Not so for the
final emery fighters. They attacked dthe stricken Fredrich already
drifting defenseless. Two Radetsky class escort cruisers closed ranks
together with the Barrier CAP, took care of the desperate attackers with
some further damage to the KRS Fredrich.

So ended the massive battle. Of the 22 main ships in the KV force, only
1 SD and 4 Vobok cruisers escaped, all of them grievously damaged. 1
Vobok was captured. This left 3 SDs, 9 cruisers, and 4 BBs destroyed as
well as 30 fighters.

1st CAF losses were put at 2 SDs destroyed (Bismarck and the Markgraf),
2 BCs destroyed, one Strike cruiser and three missile destroyers
destroyed. Heavy damage to one strike cruiser, one Super dreadnought.
Light or no damage to others. The fighter arm suffered worst. They lost
76 fighters! Subsequently rescue operations (since we know owned the
space) netted 33 ejection capsules but only 15 of those pilots are fit
for duty. Pretty much every SML in the fleet was fired off.

Some observations:

1. The Kra'Vak chose to concentrate their fires almost exclusively on my
heavies. They would continue pounding a ship long after it was already
combat ineffective while virtually ignoring the DD/Ms (which were able
to get off all their salvos) and the new cloak-capable PIG BOATS. I
think this may have to do with the strict hierarchical KV culture.
Perhaps firing at the little ships is "beneath" them? Or perhaps They
figured that concentrating on the heavies would shatter the morale of
the fleet or disrupt a perceived strong centralized control network?

2. Carrier based aviation is a good thing! Timing your missile and
fighter attacks so they arrive together and overwhelm enemy defenses is
crucial. (We screwed up and allowed all aspect Scattergun firing which
IMO more than made up for limiting capital missle kills to a 4-6 There
weren't that many anyways.) Until his fleet warped out the KV fighters
were all used in a screening role. My strike groups had interceptors
flying escort which occupied the KV CAP and allowed the rest of the
ships to get through. Always concentrate multiple attacks so as to
overwhelm the PDS. KV scatterguns are simply too powerful to do
elsewise.

3.I know they are controversial but I like both rerolls and core systems
rules. I had to dump power cores on an SD and a SC (Both of which I was
unwilling to lose). The Kra'Vak suffered a power core explosion. We also
modified core damage as follows:
A. Life support: resolved per FB
B. Bridge + power core. The turn after hit they are automatically
down.After that the player rolls 1d6. On a 6 it's up again. (On a 1 the
power core is out for good.) Next turn he rolls again, on a 5,6 it's
repaired, next turn 4,5,6 and so on. Adds more guesswork into it.

Rerolls with KV rail guns. We did it like this: Say a 2RG is firing. It
rolls a 6. That's 4 pts damage. Subsequent roll is a 1. That's an
additional 2 points (as opposed to nothing).

4. The Kra'Vak commander played the roll to a T. Considering the force
he was up against it was a very tough fight. I'd love to be a fly on the
wall of his briefing room when he meets the clan leader. On our end we
have a captured (though extremely beat up) Vo'Bok Hunter to take apart
as well as over a diozen prisoners, though many are severaly injured.
Does anyone know what these things eat?

Los

P.S> Awaiting word on HARBINGER II.