[FT AAR] New Israel/Islamic Federation

Noam will provide a lot more detail on this, but I'm the one who's now
a rapidly expanding ball of plasma so I figured I'd start.

An Islamic Federation raider group was closing on a New Israeli convoy
when a NI Hunter-Killer group hove into range.

--Forces--
IF: 2 Ifrit heavy cruisers (mass 70), 2 Qaws SMR cruisers (mass 60),
one Saber Beam-2 cruiser, one Mameluke DDH.  Points on table 1200 or
so, no ships had FTL drives.  Start position about 20/70, heading 4,
speed 12

NI Convoy: 5 freighters, 3 corvettes, 3 "missile bait" escorts (about
250 points, not counting freighters), starting about 60/50, heading 3

NI HK: 1 BB, 2 CA, 2 mini-carriers, 4 fighter squadrons, plus about 10
more "missile bait" escorts. (about 1600 points), starting about
10/10, heading 2, speed 16

    I closed on the convoy to make it look as if I was going to attack
it and ignore the warships.  Noam launched his fighters and also
continued closing on the convoy to defend it.
    I tried a couple of SMR-ER shot, hoping that he wasn't going to
expect the ER part.  My beam-armed ships turned into him, with the
intent to mug his battleship; my DDH hung off my left flank to deal
with the convoy corvettes, and the missile cruisers kept out of the
way.  Noam also turned to face me.  My missiles vaporized one of his
"missile bait" escorts, and my PDS chopped away at his fighters.  We
exchanged beam fire.
     I realized at this point that my missile cruisers were going to
be high on the target list next time, so I launched all my missiles
even though I didn't have much hope of killing more than those banzai
jammers.  Fortunately I guessed right on one of the mini-carriers, and
it exploded.  Meanwhile my PDS gunners came off the better in an
exchange with fighters--Saint Teske must have been watching over me,
and Commander Kochte was serving both with the NI torpedo firecon, and
later with the NI fighters.   Beam fire happened some more.
     Out of SMR's, my main punch was gone and I was down to 1 CH, 1 CL
and 1 DDH against 2 CE and 1 injured BB.  Prudence dictated that I
break contact.	The NI fighters swarmed around my DDH and wished, very
briefly, that they hadn't.   My DDH blew up moments later to the
avenging beams of the BB.  My surviving ships accelerated away and
escaped.
    Result: NI victory,  more expensive than he'd hoped--that was
mainly due to my incredible luck with PDS fire, plus his leaving his
mini-carriers open to a cheap shot from my SMRs.   My squadron had to
have effective SMR shots to win, and Noam's use of banzai jammers
denied me the opportunity.  He happened to bring the right mix of
ships, and I didn't.  Had I brought a MT Missile arsenal or a heavy
carrier to the party, things might have gone differently.

--Chris  DeBoe
Quixtar IBO#706882
http://www.quixtar.com