[FT] After action report: Ring Around the Starbase

Mark Shurtleff and I played an amusing game last night.  It was a fairly
standard even-sided battle, with a twist:  a neutral space colony in the
center
of the map that was only interested in defending itself.
   We played the game using Fleet Book rules and cinematic movement,
with
forces composed of 1200 points per side.  We set up on either end of a
4' x 6'
Starscape mat, with the colony starbase in the center of the map.
   Mark's forces, from the ill-tempered feline K'rathri Empire,
consisted of a
BB, 2 CHs, and a widdle bitty gunboat.	I had a detached NSL carrier
patrol
wing, consisting of an escort carrier, a CH, two CCs, and a FF.  Full
details
of the fleets are at the end of this posting.
   Mark picked up a Battlestar Galactica Cylon Base Star plastic model
kit for
the starbase.  He assembled half of it, leaving the other half to be
made into
a second base later.  After looking at the kit and thinking it seemed
awfully
familiar, we took a look through our Full Thrust books.  Sure enough, on
page
22 of More Thrust, the same Cylon Base Star, albeit with a few CMD parts
tacked
onto it, was used by the GZG folks for their starbase.	Even unpainted,
it
looks fantastic, and with a couple of merchantmen docked around the
edge, it's
pretty impressive.
   The starbase was composed of five 100-mass sectors.	Since it was a
civilian
colony, it didn't sport anything larger than Class 1 beams and PDS.  The
starbase would only fire on ships in range (12"), and then only on a
high roll
on one die.  If it did decide to fire, it would fire from one to three
beams,
determined by another single die roll:	1-3 = one beam, 4-5 = two, 6 =
three.
These were only to be warning shots; if either side were really insane
enough
to fire on the station, any of that side's ships would be taking fire
from
everything the station could throw at it (10 Class 1 beams and 10 PDS
per
sector) for the rest of the game.  We figured that if anyone managed to
actually run into the station, it would fire everything it had at
*anyone* who
managed to get in range; space colonists don't really like massive hull
breaches. . .
   For purposes of line of sight, only the center 2" of the station
actually
blocked, but the station's whole 12" diameter was used for determining
whether
ships would actually ram into it.  The scale is a bit off, but it played
well.

I started the game off by rolling two dice for our initial velocity; we
came in
at a very cautious 5.  On the first turn, we both turned our fleets two
points
to port, which set us up for a nice "Ring Around the Rosie" for most of
the
game as we chased each other around the starbase.
   I launched the heavy fighters and one wing of regular fighters in the
second
turn, sending them off to starboard to wait for Mark's forces to run
into them.
the next turn, the remaining group of regular fighters left the carrier
and
joined with the others, just out of range of the starbase but in good
position
to ambush the K'rathri fleet.

The shooting started in turn four as we passed the starbase on either
side. The
NSL fighters descended upon the K'rathri BB like an angry swarm of angry
swarming things.  Half of them were promptly swatted out of the sky by
*very*
effective point defense, and the rest were so shaken they pretty much
missed
their attack runs; only four points of damage to a very heavily armored
battleship.
   We were still at extreme range, so no serious damage was done with
beam
fire, but the colonists started to get a little nervous as high-energy
particle
beams flickered within meters of their home in space.  I had stayed well
out of
range of the colony, skirting the edge of the map, while Mark had gone
for a
close pass; he took a couple of ineffective warning shots from the
starbase.

By turn five, it had occurred to me that with our current velocities and
distances from the station, Mark was going to be on my tail and shooting
at the
unprotected rear of my fleet in no time, so I tightened my turn and dove
toward
the starbase as Mark's fleet continued its close orbit of the colony. 
All but
two of the fighters met their demise this turn, and the beam and torpedo
fire
heated up a bit as the range closed to less than 24".  Mark's gunship
was the
only element of his fleet not tightly grouped with the other ships; it
made a
wider, much higher-speed turn, avoiding the light guns from the starbase
and
the heavier guns from my fleet.

The remaining fighters bought it in turn six; all-in-all, a terrible
waste of
lives, ships, and taxpayer dollars.  We continued around the station,
with Mark
having the advantage of good firing arcs from his nearly-on-my-tail
approach
vector.  His gunboat dove in toward the station and within firing range,
taking
an ineffective potshot at my trailing cruiser.	Not very impressed by
this
little display of aggression, the crew of the Northampton returned fire
with a
2 and a couple 1s, completely obliterating the little gunboat.	That
would
teach the cats to tailgate. . .

By the next turn, my fleet had come about 180 degrees from its original
starting course, and I'd swung wide of the station again due to excess
velocity.  Mark's K'rathri continued their close orbit of the starbase,
receiving fire from its inhabitants fairly regularly; I guess they
weren't too
happy to have a group of aggressive aliens flying that close in large
warships.
   A good concentrated long-range beam spread from Mark's fleet damaged
the
Northampton's engines at this point (the cats weren't too keen on losing
their
gunboat, apparently), which looked like it would be problematic a few
turns
down the road, since it was headed toward the edge of the board at a
velocity
of 15.	The carrier and heavy cruiser managed to interpose the the
starbase
between themselves and the opposition, and avoided any further fire. 
The
frigate Dart, moving at a distant by high-velocity orbit from the
station, took
a few hits and lost its only Fire Control, which it would never regain
for the
rest of the game.

We continued circling the station ("Here we go round the mulberry
bush"),
taking long-range potshots at each other.  The Dart managed to catch up
with
the rest of the fleet (and consequently get out of range of the
K'rathri's
guns, much to the delight of her crew), but the Northampton continued to
have
engine trouble.  By turn 8, the cruiser was within milimeters of the
edge of
the table, but flying parallel to that edge.  Almost half the stand was
off the
side of the table, but the helmsman managed to keep her from leaving the
engagement for now.

In turn eleven, the Northampton, still unable to repair her damaged
drives,
left the battle from the edge she'd entered it at a velocity of 11.  A
valiant
attempt by both damage control parties and helm, but she just couldn't
stay
with the rest of the fleet.  By this point, the fleet was once again
flying
past the port side of the starbase, having completed a full lap around
the
colony.  The K'rathri had stopped turning around the station, though,
and were
decelerating rapidly in preparation to come about.

Faced with superior firepower from the opposition, and the fact that
they were
about to turn around and offer us the full force of their forward
batteries, I
decided to attempt one last high-speed pass through their fleet. If we
survived
the encounter, we could turn sharply, orbit the station again, and come
back
for another pass.  If not, we could just fly through the center of the
K'rathri
fleet and disengage from the side of the board.  The Dart, still unable
to get
its FireCon online, took a sharp turn to port and left for the opposite
side,
still badly damaged.
   The carrier, CH and CC approached the now stationary K'rathri fleet
at an
average velocity of 18.  One turn of heavy fire from both sides was
enough to
let the NSL fleet know that it wasn't going to survive this engagement
if it
continued.  The CH Noble was heavily damaged, losing both FireCons and
half its
drive power, and the CC Essex was left with a single remaining damage
point.
The fleet applied maximum thrust to zip through the opposition and
disengage.
   The carrier Cambridge, the Essex, and the Dart made it off-table the
next
turn.  Its engines damaged too badly to accelerate enough, the CH
Noble's tail
was exposed to one last point-blank barrage, and the mighty ship was
lost with
all hands.

The K'rathri held the field by the end of turn 14, making the denizens
of the
colony very, very nervous.  The cats took a fair amount of fire from the
station, and they're not known to be a very forgiving race. . .

Throughout the game, we rolled two dice apiece each turn to see if the
two
merchant freighters docked with the station would panick and attempt to
run.
On a 2, they'd give up the relative safety of the station and flee for
the edge
of the map.  The rolls got progressively lower as the game progressed;
in turn
14, both ships rolled 3s.  They're not likely to stick around much
longer.

A fun game, even if the NSL were soundly defeated.  Thanks, Mark!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------

Here's a rundown on the ships used:

K'rathri Empire (Mark):

[GHA] Kru'thanii Heavy Assaultship
      TMF:12, NPV:41, Thrust 8,
      1:Class 2 (6-arc), 1:FiCon, 2 DP, 1 CF

[CH]  Gr'kaa Heavy Cruiser (2)
      TMF:84, NPV:286, Thrust 4, 25 DP, 5 CF
      1:PTorp (1-arc F), 2:Class 3 (3-arc FP/FS), 2:Class 2 (3-arc
FP/FS),
      2:Class 1, 3:FiCon, 2:PDS, S1, A3

[BB]  Fr'krekh Battleship
      TMF:134, NPV:454, Thrust 4, 40 DP, 7 CF
      1:PTorp (3-arc F), 4:Class 3 (3-arc FP/FS), 1:Class 2 (6-arc),
2:Class 1,
      3:FiCon, 4:PDS, S1, A5

NSL (Lonnie):

   I'm using mostly NSL miniatures right now, so I'm calling my fleet
NSL, but
considering the wide range of designs I'm experimenting with, I need to
come up
with a completely different national background.  (NSL == "No Such
League"?)

[CVE] Sa'krekh Escort Carrier (out of Mark's K'rathri designs)
      TMF:110, NPV:376(*), Thrust 6, 33 DP, 6 CF
      3:Fighter Bays, 1:Class 2 (6-arc), 2:Class 1, 2:FiCon, 4:PDS, S1
      NPV:442 with 2 Standard and 1 Heavy Fighter Groups

[CH]  NSL Markgraf Heavy Cruiser (the only stock NSL ship I used)
      TMF:82, NPV:271, Thrust 4, 25 DP, 5 CF
      2:Class 3 (3-arc F), 2:Class 2 (3-arc FP/FS), 2:Class 1, 2:FiCon,
      3:PDS, A10

[CC]  ESU Beijing/B Escort Cruiser (2)
      TMF:60, NPV:201, Thrust 4, DP 18, 3 CF
      1:Class 3 (3-arc F), 2:Class 2 (3-arc FP/FS), 2:Class 1, 2:FiCon,
      2:PDS, S1, A5

[FF]  NAC Tacoma Heavy Frigate
      TMF:24, NPV:81, Thrust 6, DP 7, 2 CF
      2:Class 2 (3-arc FP/FS), 2:Class 1, 1:FiCon, 1:PDS

We took photos during the engagement; they're a little on the
low-resolution
side, but do a good job of showing ship positions at various portions of
the
game.  Mark should have them scanned and up on his web page soon.

/|\ Lonnie Foster  <lonnief@pobox.com>	http://pobox.com/~tribble  
\|/   You owe it to posterity to live a cohesive, succinct life that can
be
/|\   summed up nicely in 90 minutes.