I Am Vindicated (or, How I am Learning to Love the Kra'vak!)

Well, I played another game today against the evil Neu Swabians, who
were intent on destroying my fleet and taking the universe for
themselves (selfish krauts!).  We played a 2750 point game.  My opponent
had a Von Tegetthoff, a Maria Von Burgund, the Manfred Von Richtofen,
two Kronprinz Wilhelms, three missile destroyers, two standard
destroyers, and a mix of frigates and corvettes, as well as a heavy
fighter group.	My fleet consisted of one light carrier, one
battledreadnought, one heavy cruiser, one strike cruiser, three light
cruisers, and two destroyers, along with five heavy fighter groups.

He set up in his standard 'flying brick formation', with his ships in
three lines:  corvettes and frigates up front, destroyers in a second
line, and cruisers and heavier in the third line.  I, on the other hand,
taking the advice from this group, split my ships up so that I had my
carrier, a destroyer, and a cruiser on the left, four cruisers in the
center (including my strike and heavy), and my battledreadnought and a
cruiser on the right.  On the first turn, I had the two wings accelerate
to a speed of 12, while the center groups decelerated to a speed of 8
(both had started at 10).  I figured that this type of tactic had worked
for Shaka and his Zulu warriors, so why not try it if my opponent was
going to oblige me by staying in a block formation.  We were playing on
a large surface, so it was three turns before my fighters made contact
with his force.  They went after his escort cruisers, which did so well
with their PDS that I lost 3 1/2 fighter groups (had one full plus some
remnants left) before I could press home the attack.  Luckily the two
partial groups failed their morale checks, and so caused some
significant damage to both cruisers before they fell back.  I had the
full fighter group fall back as well.  As the battle developed, my
opponent shifted his entire force to bear on my carrier group,
unfortunately ignoring my BDN and its escort as they swept in from the
side.  In the subsequent exchanges, I lost both smaller ships escorting
my carrier, and destroyed one of his corvettes, a DD, and his BB in
response.  I also suffered minor damage on several other ships.  By this
time, I had stopped both my carrier and cruisers within about 20" of his
force, while my BDN swept around to the side.  To make a long story not
quite as long, I was able to maneuver the BDN directly behind his Von
Tegetthoff, with the Richtofen squarely in my sights.  Seven shots
later, the Von Tegetthoff and a frigate were just empty memories, with
my BDN suffering minor damage in return.  Both NSL escort cruisers were
either destroyed or rendered impotent by this time.  I also rearmed and
reorganized my fighters, and sent them in now that the escorts were
gone.  They managed to destroy the remaining destroyers and corvettes,
and the last enemy frigate was finished off by massed class 1 K-guns.
Once the Von Tegetthoff was alone, it was only a matter of time, and my
remaining ships (my BDN, CVL, DD, CA, 2xCL) swarmed in and finished it
off, although my BDN took significant damage, including the loss of 1
class 5 and one class 3 K-gun.

In examining the aftermath of the battle, several things became clear:

1)  The suggestion to use class 1 guns against smaller ships is a great
idea, and worked well for me.  Even if they're not doing much damage, it
doesn't take much time to swat the smaller ships, and they'd be wasted
on armor on the big boys.

2)  Splitting up my force was a very effective tactic, allowing me to
hit him from any direction, as well as confuse him.  Several times he
forgot to mass fire on my larger ships in particular simply because he'd
been hit so badly from multiple directions.

3)  Missiles from the NSL don't worry me, although I think that the FSE
with their larger magazines might cause some trouble.

4)  K-Guns in the rear arc of anyone from 6" away are devastating!

Anyway, I did want to thank those who offered their suggestions, since
they did work out very well.  Who knows, I may even be ready to get
stomped by the SV again after today :)

Mark