FT-Battle report and conclusions

I just ran a battle senario, where a NAC/NSL light task force ran into a
arachnid battle group. The background was like this-

"The NAC high command was worried that it had become very quiet in the
rim
of sector 12, with a drop in pirate activaty (although they weren`t
complaining) and a almost total stop in the small merchent men that
usually
served the small, scattered independant colonies beyond the normal limit
of
human space. They became concerened enough to dispach a powerful
scouting
task force when contact was lost with a NAC/NSL listening post near the
boarder. The task force was heading for the lost listening  post when
they
discovered a warp point leading into a	ESU system near the boarder.
This
caused suspitions to rest with the ESU as the responsibal party. Some of
their ships had already jumped through to scout, leaving all of the new
warships behind (to prevent the ESU finding out about them), when a
large
group of unidentified starships, not of human origins, jumped into close
proximaty."

 Senario settup-

The human starships were clustered about the warppoint, wondering what
to
do, when the bug starships jumped in 60 MU distant. For this battle,
jump
effects are ignored, and the bugs were placed randomly. The humans in
this
senario were just trying to dammage the bugs and escape, while the bugs
were
trying to destroy as many human ships as posible. This is because each
side
would gain some re-enforcements for the second part of the battle, which
would be the bugs asaulting the warppoint, but the bugs would be
re-enforced
more heavly and could afford bigger losses (except for the human
fighters
which would be at full streight for the next battle). The forces were as
follows-

NAC/NSL-
Bombardier SDM
Dunkirk BCM x2
Broadsword BCM
Dresden BBH
Longhorn DDH x2 (I know they`re FCT)
Squire CVLE x2 (Altair micro CV)
Essex CVE (Dimashq CVE)
Fighter groups (std) x8

Bugs-
Acid SDE x2 (as given on the FTSR, except "c" pulsars used as plasma
guns,
not p.torps)
Archer SDM x2 (modified from the FTSR ones with no energy weapons, and
more
ammo)
Auger SDN (heavy needle beams fitted as per WDA, except only 1 f.con
required and only 1 die rolled at any range)
Avalaunch SDL (cl 3 beams x7)
Carbine CLM
Cannon CLL
Cleaver CLC (plasma/c pulsar version)
Caterphrack CLE

The humans were outnumbered and outgunned, but had ships that were
faster
than the bug SD`s (except for the Bombardier SDM) and outranged the bug
weapons (no ER SML`s, only the avalaunch SDL/Cannon CLL with a range of
over
24 MU) and had fighters. The battle went like this-

Turn 1

The humans launched all fighters to one side of the board, and proceeded
to
advance with the SD`s/BC`s. The bugs advanced towaeds the enemy and
tried to
group their SD`s together from their scattered starting points. Both
sides
were out of range.

Turn 2

The range closed enough for the SD`s/BC`s to launch their MT missiles
towards the enemy, while the CL`s (except the CLE`s) used full thrust to
close with the BC`s, which the human had allowed to get ahead of the
SD`s in
his attempt to get with firing range. The BC`s/SD`s fired their energy
weapons at the 3 CL`s approching the BC`s, and managed to cause 2 DP`s
to
one ship (CLC), and 6 DP`s to the other (CLL), which only lost 1 cl3
bat.
The bug CL`s returned fire on the BC`s, only causing 7 DP to 1 ship. The
carriers retreated towards the warppoint with the 2 DDH as escorts, the
fighters continued to close with a pair of bug SD`s that were off to one
side of the main group.

Turn 3

The SD`s/BC`s (with ER SML`s) were in range of the bug SD`s, and
launched a
full salvo of SM and MT missiles at the main group of bug SD`s, to no
effect
(all ships were within ADFCon range, and had the 2 CLE`s along). Due to
bad
orders, the BC`s ended up within 9 MU of the CL`s charging ahead. In a
exchange of fire, the BC`s and SD`s killed the CL`s with energy weapons.
The
rest of the bug SD`s (except the two off to one side) were at 22 MU, and
launched everything (including the SMR`s) at the BC`s, who were
vaporised
(hull=21, dammage=53!). The second salvo of MT and SM missiles managed
to
penetrate the PDS and dammage 1 of the avalaunch SDL¬S, causing a
threshold
check in which he lost 3 of the 7 cl3 bats he had.

Turn 4

The humans decided to scarper, and turned and applied full thrust
towards
the warppoint (the SD`s had kept their speed down due to the thrust 2
NSL
SD). The human commander sent his fighters to attack the 2 separated
SD`s,
that had laged behind the others due to the bug commander being eager to
close the range. The main bug force fired everything it had on the NSL
bombardier SDM, and managed to cause enough dammage to force a threshold
check, which he failed on his engine , which also took a needle beam hit
(!). The fighters attacked the 2 separated bug SD`s, only to find out
they
were a archer SDM and a acid SDE. The combined fire of 28 PDS (remember,
pulsars can be used as PDS) only killed 16 fighters from the eight
fighter
groups attacking. The fighters attacked with everything they had, but
only
caused minimal dammage to the level 2 sheilded archer SD.

Turn 5

The human commander decided the Bombardier was dead, and burned at full
thrust with his SD and BBH towards the warppoint. The Bombardier turned
around and fired everything it had at one of the bug SDL`s at a range of
11
MU. The bugs ignored the other ships to pound the SD to scrap. Unlucally
for
the bugs, the targetted SDL by the Bombardier took enough dammage to
force
it over 2 threshold points in one turn, and failed his threshold roll
for
his reactor. The superior thrust and the fact the bugs concetrated on
the
bombardier allowed the human ships to escape through the warppoint. The
human fighters attacked the 2 SD`s again, and only 6 fighters suvived
(in 5
different groups). The fighters failed their moral roll and ran for the
warppoint and the carriers with every thing they had.

Turn 6

The SD/BBH arrived at the warppoint and the SD, BBH, and all the CV`s
except
the essex jumped through (the DDH`s jumped on the previous turn), the
essex
stayed to pick up the fighters that arrived this turn, because the range
was
still enough for him to recover the fighters and jump before being fired
on.
The bugs reduced speed, except for the dammaged SDL which dumped it`s
core
to prevent a explosion.

Winner (?)-A draw, leaning towards the bugs. The winner will be decided
by
the next battle and the result from that.

Conclusions-

NEVER send fighters against acid (or caterphrack) if undammaged. These
guys
eat missiles or fighters for breakfast. You have very little chance of
getting through.
Don`t go racing to meet the bugs, they will come to you, and it also
allows
you to ensure that all you ships are within support of each other.
The bug CL`s go pop very easily, but use their speed to close with the
enemy
and cause the maximum of dammage before checking out. Fighters are
probably
the best weapon to use against them (except the CLE), but in this case
the
human player heald his fighter back and they were on the wrong side of
the
table to intercept them (he thought the capitol ships would have enough
firepower to take them out on their own).
The human commander lost this battle by trying to kill the enemy and
closing
too quickly, instead of using his range and whittling the bugs down. The
bug
commander made no mistakes, and suceeded in killing some of the human
ships.
All in all, a educating battle, and the human commander didn`t do too
badly
considering how outnumbered he was (although he could have done better).

BIF
"yorkshire born,yorkshire bred,
strong in arms, thick in head"