[FT] Battle report IF vs IF

On Sunday in Richmond VA we had a satellite mini-con for those
who couldn't make it to GZG ECC (ie six people including myself
and fellow lister Rob Hofrich).  First we had a quick DS2
battle--"quick" meaning "one turn": they shouldn't have been in
such a hurry to get to the objectives, we just stayed under
cover or behind hills and shot them as they ran out into the
open.  The second event was a FTFB battle between two opposing
Islamic Federation forces.

In 2170, the New Egyptian and New Syrian amirs, with covert ESU
backing, rebelled against the Sultanate.

Sultanate Fleet:
Force 1: 3 Salah-ed-Din BC
Force 2: 3 Ifrit CH + 1 Turcoman CL
Force 3: 3 Ifrit CH + 1 Turcoman CL
(a fleet almost entirely armed with beam 2)

Rebel Fleet
Force 4: 1 Dimashq CVL + 4 heavy fighter squadrons, 1 Ifrit CH,
2 Turcoman CL
Force 5: 1 Qaws CM (missile cruiser), 1 Turcoman CL, 4 Mameluke
DDH
Force 6: 1 Ifrit CH, 3 Qaws CM, 1 Mistral FSE SC
(a fleet with a mix of SMR and beams, plus the fighters)

Each force was approximately 1000 points.  Each player also had
a "bank" of 300 victory points which could have been traded for
ships (1.5vp = 1 ship pt), but no one took out more than 50
points or so.  Players could also have used VP to attempt to
bribe other players to help achieve special victory condition,
but no one took full advantage of this.

Special Victory conditions (randomly assigned):
1. Arrange for the destruction of a specific ship in an _ally's_
squadron. (not achieved)
2. Destroy a designated enemy ship (not achieved)
3. Have more points in surviving ships than either of your
allies (achieved)
4. Ensure a specific ally admiral survives (not achieved)
5. Destroy a designated enemy ship (not achieved)
6. Have your second largest ship (with your heir) survive
(achieved)

Force 1 and 2 set up together in the center of the North board
edge, with Force 3 slightly to the east.  Force 4 set up west of
center on the south edge, Force 5 began slightly east of center,
Force 6 started in the southeast corner.

Turn 1: Sultanate forces accelerated rapidly,  while rebel
forces shifted position only slightly.

Turn 2: Force 6 launched 6 SMR-ER on Force 3; four salvos found
targets, three were stopped by PDS, but the fourth executed its
attack perfectly and destroyed an Ifrit.  Force 1 and 2 closed
to point blank range with the CL and DDH's of Force 5, plus the
Ifrit and one Turcoman from Force 4.  After intense beam fire in
all directions, Force 5 (except the Qaws, which had wisely hung
back) was destroyed, Force 4 and 2 each lost a Turcoman, and
Force 1 lost a Salah-ed-Din.  Things were not looking good for
the rebels.

Turn 3: The two forces passed through each other, with the
Sultan's Force 1 accelerating out of supporting range from Force
2, which turned out to be a mistake; Force 2 maneuvered directly
into a pattern of 15 SMR, with the consequent loss of 2 Ifrits.
Dimashq's fighters finally caught Force 1 and destroyed one
Salah-ed-Din, at a cost of 5 fighters from one squadron and 1
from another.  Time was called before we were able to complete
ship fire, but range and arc considerations would have made it a
lot less damaging than the previous turn.

 At this point, each side had 1 Turcoman, 1 undamaged Ifrit and
1 damaged; in addition the Sultanate had an undamaged
battlecruiser, the rebels had 3 effective heavy fighter
squadrons, plus half a dozen ships which were essentially
non-combatants: 4 Qaws (with no missiles left), the Mistral, and
the Dimashq (about half a dozen Beam 1's between them all).
Result: an expensive rebel victory.

--Chris "Laserlight" DeBoe