In a grave escalation of the Kzinti Civil War, a Federation strike group was seen attacking the innocent civilians on planets Lumien (1504).

A Klingon defensive force was dispatched to protect the planet, but did not arrive in time to stop some of the Federation Captains committing several war crimes.

2 Federation NCL's, seen doing the bulk of the attacking on the Civilians was destroyed by local loyal Kzinti forces and the arriving Klingon defensive force, but several guilty Federation ships escaped.

Evidence of the atrocities has been sent to the Federation Council for an explanation and it is hoped all Federation forces will withdraw from Kzinti space, to avoid such atrocities happening again.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Thursday, August 01, 2019 - 07:08 pm: Edit

Yes, the awesome might of the Federation has begun to make itself felt . . . by getting two NCL mauled while running from a reserve fleet! The Hydrans returned the favor by bagging two D5 in a pursuit on their front.

It is possible that I should have tried to prevent pursuit by dragging out the battle. I could not have won the hex, but it might have been possible to cripple enough Klingons to prevent pursuit. That would have presented its own problems, however, as my force started off a bit smaller and did considerably less damage on the first round.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Friday, August 02, 2019 - 09:15 am: Edit

Will let William give the juicy bits....

but dice have been fair (4.375 all round on A7) and no captures.

Just 2 captures all game I think (D6M and a Kzinti FF)…. so we under rolling captures slightly.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Friday, August 02, 2019 - 10:11 pm: Edit

Alliance turn 7 is done. On the Hydran front, the Hydrans picked off a couple of ships and set up with the vast majority of their fleet on Hydrax, small forces on the 2nd fleet SB and the planet in between, and large and small reserves offmap.

The Kzinti front was more eventful. The Alliance killed 2 ships while losing 4 but made up for it by crippling 17 ships while taking 7 crippled.

As promised, 2104 is a beehive of activity. The Feds towed in two FRD and are attempting both an MB setup and a BATS>SB upgrade. They have about 10 ships defending there from home/3rd fleets, plus a 10-ship reserve that is eligible to participate in the limited war. From a strictly military point of view, it would not be difficult for the Coalition to stop all of this. The political implication would be the Federation at full war, however, and Paul is not prepared to strike the Feds in the center or the South.

The Marquis region is heavily defended, with a significant fleet on the planet and each of the three BATS. Paul could probably take several of these points, but he'd have to fight for it.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Saturday, August 03, 2019 - 01:21 pm: Edit

Coalition Turn 8

Lyran Survey 9 (87 total)

Lyrans build
DN, STT, 2 x CW, 2 x DW, 3 x FF and CWE and DWE

Conversions CL>BC, CC>CV and FF>FFE.

75 Ep's Spent on Repairs.

No cash for a PDU and balance is 0.3 Ep's.

Klingon Survey 5 (45 total)

Klingon build
C8, D6M, TGB, D5V, 8 x D5, 6 x F5, 3 x E4

No conversions, but 2 D6's taken out of mothball and the B10 rolls a 4 (21 total)

48 Ep's spent on Repairs.

Backlog has repairs has been massively reduced, but a stack still need to be repaired.

Tug Pods see 3 VP and 1 BP set go from Kzinti space to the Hydran front.

On to operational movement.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Saturday, August 03, 2019 - 06:07 pm: Edit

Federation gambit not accepted it appears. Not sure what I could have done to make it more enticing. Maybe if a tug had towed Earth itself down there?

Hydrax is under attack, as are the three BATS and planet in the Marquis region. There are some reserves in range, so it is likely that at least some of the Marquis targets will survive. Hydrax remains to be seen. The Hydran fleet there is strong but also badly outnumbered.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, August 04, 2019 - 01:33 pm: Edit

Just don't have enough strength for a successful initial Federation invasion

So although tempting in trying to stop it, the BATS>SB will occur as the reward I felt was lower than the risk.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Sunday, August 04, 2019 - 08:34 pm: Edit

Reserves have been dispatched. Both Hydran reserves went to Hydrax. Counting the FCP fighters, the Hydran fleet has 620 DefPot against 1100 for the Coalition. But the Hydrans also have an SB and one PDU at Hydrax, plus 10PDU and a mobile base elsewhere. After the side planets are dealt with, the battle will move to Hydrax itself, where the Hydrans will start with roughly a 3:2 compot edge.

On the Kzinti front, there were three small reserves -- one Fed and two Kzinti. The Kzinti sent one to shore up BATS 1902, where their defenses appeared to be inadequate. The rest went to planet 1902, which still probably won't hold. But it does provide an excellent opportunity to bleed the Coalition.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, August 05, 2019 - 05:11 am: Edit

In a terribly sneaky way.... the Coaliton have sneaked an extra hull into 617....

…. alas for me, the extra hull is only an E4A!

(The counter was buried under the pile of Fleet counters that was present!!!)

Hopefully the 3 Marquis area BATS will all die and 1802 will be captured.

718 has been recaptured and 416 should also fall.

617 looks close....

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, August 05, 2019 - 11:34 am: Edit

Well, after a good start on the dice.... the dice have been pretty brutal to the Coalition

Last 4 Alliance rolls have been 6,6,4,6!

(v 3,2,4,4)

Average over 8 rounds so far is 3.25 v 4.00.

Looking at it - won the first 2 rolls, and have lost 5 of the next 6 rolls.

Two crucial rolls so far - 1 got (crippled a BATS) and missed 1 (missed crippling a BATS)…. and to make it more pain full WIlliams roll would have been enough for me to cripple it.

,...and the Alliance succeeded in another pursuit roll!

By chris upson (Misanthropope) on Monday, August 05, 2019 - 04:46 pm: Edit

what part of that, if any, was over capitol fortifications?

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, August 06, 2019 - 03:23 am: Edit

None so far - we are doing the northern battles first.

Battles have all been over BATS.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, August 06, 2019 - 09:11 am: Edit

Well, the dice gods continue to favour the Alliance.

After 15 rounds, average has widened to 3.06 for the Coalition v 3.87 for the Alliance.

In perhaps the key northern battle the dice gods really hurt the Coalition - with dice reversed the bulk of the on Map Kzinti forces (other than those on 2 BATS) would have been out of supply.

(rolls were 4 v 5, 5 v 3 (hurrah), 1 v 4 (boo) - and the VBIR didn't help either, dropping 5 levels over the 3 battle rounds - I wanted high as I had no EW!)

As it is, the Barony is a partial grid - with 1 modest fleet out of supply and 2 other fleets down afew fighters.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, August 06, 2019 - 12:41 pm: Edit

Well, combat is nearly completed, just 1 minor battle in 617 to do

416 fell - Hydrans lost the 2 PDU's and a CU and the Lyrans lost a DD (plus 2 other cripples).

In 218, the 'brave' uncrippled HN fled allowing the crippled CU to die....which was then captured (so Alliance has captured a D6M and the Coalition a K-FF and CU).

718 was the first 'battle' of the round and was captured as was undefended.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Tuesday, August 06, 2019 - 07:17 pm: Edit

In the Marquis battles, Paul's objectives appear to have been taking the remaining Kzinti planet (he did) and killing the three BATS there (he got one of three).

Each side lost 3 ships, with the only large one a Lyran CC. But the Coalition took about 68EP of crips, while the Alliance suffered only 24EP, plus I believe 2 SIDS on a BATS. The Alliance was helped by the fact that both of the successful assaults involved Coalition dirdam on the fixed defenses in the hex. Additionally, the Alliance had higher compot everywhere but the planet, had more fighters, and rolled better.

The Alliance repair cycle is helped by the Feds, and the Coalition is about to take an enormous dose of crips at Hydrax. Therefore, I would have preferred to trade more crips. I might have been able to do so by staying at the planet, but it would have been risky as my compot there was less than his, and I might have opened myself up to a nasty pursuit.

The Coalition also spent 1CP (Lyrans at the planet).

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, August 07, 2019 - 07:47 am: Edit

Firsly - my goodness, the dice are finally being nice to the Coalition over 617.

For the first 6 rolled rounds*, averages are

VBIR 4.16
Coaliton 5.33
Hydrans 2.5

Auto kill was applied once on the Hydrans and missed 3 times in total by both sides (2 v 1), as BIR was only 4.

* First two rounds saw 2 Minor Planets which had no defences on devastated without reply.

Average for turn is now 3.42/3/58/3.33.

Hydran is now the only undevsatated planet (no PDU's left, last one just died), but it still has it's SB.

Losses are a DN for the Lyrans and 2 x LB and 1 x SC for the Hydrans. (All directed/SC self killed).

Hydrans self killed their MB over Hydraxmax and 11 PDU's have so far died.

No Hydran ships are cripped…. and the Coalition already have a large pile!

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Thursday, August 08, 2019 - 01:32 pm: Edit

Hydrax battle continues. The Klingons have crippled their good carrier groups, and the Coalition now appears to be working on their CW. For their part, the Hydrans have gone through about half their fighters (other than the FCP) and have been crippling mostly HR the last few rounds, as well as continuing to kill fighters.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Friday, August 09, 2019 - 02:15 pm: Edit

The battle continues. Both sides are digging deep. Hydrans are now putting all their battle tugs and PAL on the line, which pushes their compot slightly above 200. All of their HR and LN are now crippled, but they do have a full line of CA and larger ships for the moment. Coalition somehow found 117 compot last round. Both compots are likely to drop. The Coalition will need to start using 5-6 density ships for fodder, and when the Hydrans run out of RN for the line, which won't take long, they'll have to either put up carrier tug groups or ships with density 5 or below, causing a big drop either way.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Friday, August 09, 2019 - 03:45 pm: Edit

Dice are generally favouring the Coalition - although a couple of dice have gone the wrong way (one modest chance of killing a BT or Paladin failed and the one time I put a BT on the line - William rolled well to kill it even with 6 pts owed!!).

But I can't grumble too much.

Cripples for both sides will take a while to return to service - 24 for the Hydrans (mainly CW's) versus 74 Coalition!

SB has 4 Self inflicted SIDS on it....

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, August 11, 2019 - 04:58 am: Edit

After 17 effective round (22 including against undefended plans), the Coalition forces withdrew from 617...

…. William kept multiple Paladin's and Battle Tugs on the line for more rounds than I was expecting and although Williams line would have started to drop by more than mine, I was down to a single round where I would have had over 100 compot - which probably would have cost me a Battle Tug.

The last round saw 34 damage dealt and 62 received - and similar damage would have seen the few remaining high compot units I had being crippled (as DD's and F5's are ideal....but not if you have to take 50+ damage!!!).

Main damage is Coalition lost a DN, TGA+BP and a D7C- Hydrans lost a TG+BP and 2 x LB.

Hate to think what the Ep cost will be for the Coalition!

SB has 4 SIDS on it and is the only defenses left.

Lyrans spent 4 CP's - Hydran's spent 2 CP's.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, August 11, 2019 - 08:32 am: Edit

Correction - the Klingons spent the 4 Cp's

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Sunday, August 11, 2019 - 09:34 am: Edit

Hydrans have 25 crips from the battle: 10HR, 6LN, 2DG, RN, TR, 3KN, 2SC. Total repair cost is 38EP. All of the crippled hybrid carriers retreated during the battle. The upshot is that next turn, the Hydrans will have a first-rate CA line available, but the "fodder" will have very few HR/LN. These were crucial to holding the hex this turn. For example, an HR can absorb 10 damage on its hull and fighters, and subbing 3HR for 3CA costs only 6-7 compot.

Coalition crips in the battle are 130-140 EP. Paul has 38EP of repair capacity in range, plus another 8EP seven hexes away.

By chris upson (Misanthropope) on Sunday, August 11, 2019 - 11:14 am: Edit

wow, brutal.

with all the irreparable damage, is the turn 9 attack likely to be remotely even? 'cause im thinking both sides' pain threshold would be off the charts on the eve of fed/ romulan festivities.

gotta say, i'm really surprised the hydrans partially retreated. im not saying it's wrong, it just seems out of character for you, william.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Sunday, August 11, 2019 - 12:01 pm: Edit

As you have surmised, I put a lot of value on tempo, but that does have its limits. A crippled HR is effectively a 6.5EP unit. Letting him spend 8 damage to kill that seems to go too far. Similarly, a crippled LN is effectively a 4.5EP unit. Actually probably a little less since I wouldn't pay 6EP for uncrippled ones. Again letting him kill that for 6 damage seems unfavorable.

I did keep the crippled TR and KN at Hydrax, as well as the SC that I crippled on the last round.

I'm sure Paul can put enough down there to take it on turn 9. What impact that may have on the Fed/Kzinti front is an interesting question.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, August 11, 2019 - 01:32 pm: Edit

Williams is right - I would have been very happy to kill a HR for 8 damage... 4 wasted damage to kill a modest hull is a bargain!

A LN would be a closer decision (only 3 wasted damage...but it's only a so so hull) - but William only left poor hulls to kill

Certainly it makes turn 9 more interesting!