The Fed CA selected baseline speed 8 for turn 1, while the Lyrans opted for speed 16. The Fed started with photon pre-arming complete at the expense of battery power, and finished off the arming at the start of turn 1 to bring all four torpedoes to readiness. The Lyran topped up power in the ESGs at the start of the turn. The first half of the turn was taken up with closing and manoeuvring, the Lyran closing to range 9 before firing with 3 Disruptors and 4 Ph-1s for 15 shield damage and 1 burn through hit. The Fed returned fire with the four bearing Ph-1s for 7 damage plus 1 burn through after reinforcement:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2944649358/
The Lyran then turned away and accelerated to open the range again. On impulse #6, the Feds fired two more Ph-1s, scoring 2 damage to the Lyran's #4 shield. The Feds took the chance to launch a drone on impulse #8, and all burn through damage was repaired in the repair phase leaving both ships with a bit of shield damage. The Feds also used some remaining power to overload 2 of the tubes to +8 level and left the other 2 as normal torpedoes. A shot at the end of turn #2:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2944649372/
On turn 2, the Feds selected baseline speed 24 and the Lyrans selected speed 16. The Feds launched another drone in impulse 1. The tail-chase continued until the Feds let loose with the two overloaded torpedoes and 4 Ph-1s at range 8. Both photons missed but the phasers rolled well, scoring 10 damage between them, which resulted in 7 shield hits and a burn through hit after reinforcement. At this point, the Lyrans turned to the right and began to close the Federation cruiser once more, taking out the drones with the ESGs during the defensive fire phase. On impulse #5, the Feds fired 2 Ph-1s at range 5 while the Lyrans let go with 4 Ph-1, 3 normal Disruptors and one overloaded Disruptor for a total of 23 damage and a burn through hit after reinforcement. The Lyran then manoeuvred behind the Fed and the turn ended with the ships in this position:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2944649382/
Turn 3 began with both ships moving at speed 16 and with the Fed cruiser performing an HET directly towards the Lyran, who side-slipped to avoid being centre-lined. An exchange of fire followed at range 3, where the Lyran fired 5 Ph-1 and 4 overloaded Disruptors for a total of 39 hits, downing the Fed's #1 shield and scoring 8 internals, including one torpedo hit which struck an empty tube - the Feds hadn't pre-loaded one of the tubes as they were anticipating damage before it was able to arm fully. The Feds returned fire with 4 Ph-1 and 2 +4 overloads, both of which hit for a total of 48 damage, owning the Lyran's front shield and scoring 14 internals - a few power hits, a disruptor and a phaser and the remainder system and hull boxes. A picture taken at this point:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2944649392/
On the next impulse, the Feds were unable to evade the Lyrans (having just performed a HET and having turn and slip modes reset, while lacking sufficient power to perform another HET), who closed to range 1 and conducted an ESG attack, downing the #3 shield and scoring 14 internals - a phaser hit and mostly hull and systems. The Federation returned fire with a pair of Ph-3s, for 8 shield damage.
On turn 4, the Lyrans moved behind the Feds. At this point, I made a stupid mistake in exposing my very weak forward shield to the Feds, who took the opportunity to put 2 Ph-1s and 2 Ph-3s through it for 4 internals. The Lyrans unleashed a directed alpha-strike aimed at the Fed's weapons with 3 Disruptors and 6 Ph-1s, downing the Fed's #4 shield and scoring 15 internals, scoring two sets of hits on damage chart #6 as a result of the directed targetting. This stripped two of the remaining torpedo tubes (in this case empty tubes again) from the CA and several phasers as well, including the rear phasers. At this point, the Feds performed another HET without breaking down, and achieved a range 1 shot with 4 Ph-1 and the remaining photon, downing the Lyran's #2 shield and scoring 14 internals, amongst which were several power hits, a disruptor hit and several phaser hits (bye bye Ph-3s). The Lyrans returned fire with the remaining energy in the ESGs, scoring 5 internals on the Federation ship:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2944649398/
Turn 5 began with the Lyrans behind the Federation, with the latter doing a very good job of keeping a good shield to them. The Lyran decided to bite the bullet and fire at the good shield, as to try for a better opportunity would expose the Lyran's own downed #1 and #2 shields. The Federation's single Ph-1 bearing on the target returned fire for a few token damage points which brought the Lyran's final forward shield to only 3 boxes. By a fluke, the Lyran's 2 overloaded Disruptors and 5 Ph-1s downed the shield and scored 10 internals on damage chart #6, stripping the Fed CA of all remaining weapons except a single phaser and a single torpedo launcher. A shot taken at this point:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2944649408/
At this point, the Fed Cruiser turned to disengage, having plenty of power remaining but with so many weapon hits there was little hope of using the advantage in power to smash the Lyrans. The Lyran ship was about as heavily damaged by the end of this, but the damage was taken more evenly across the ship, with about 10 power hits, 2 Disruptors, 4 Phasers and an ESG knocked out in addition to most hull and some system hits. The Federation had taken most of their "padding" hits and most weapon hits (including the probe launcher!), but hardly any power hits and so could disengage far faster than the Lyrans could hope to pursue, so we called the game at this point.
So, lessons learned. Firstly, don't turn a downed shield onto anybody unless you can really guarantee it will be very much worth your while, or if the enemy has not got anything available to fire into you. I suppose playing as the Lyrans gave me some excuse for this stupid mistake, as our blood lust was clarly up and we were high on the adrenalin of the hunt while tail-chasing the Fed, and not paying due care and attention to our own ship.
Secondly, the Fed CA does deserve its reputation as a tough nut to crack - it has pretty good shields and is very tough inside when it does start to take internals, partly because it has so many lab boxes which appear quite often on the damage charts. The Fed CA absorbed a lot of punishment over the 5 turns, and did a good job of keeping a good shield to the Lyran. Overall, the Fed took more damage points, but actually had less non-padding hits than the Lyran (although in this case the Fed got un-lucky and had enough weapon hits to be disabling).
Photon torpedoes really are a "wonder weapon" - some of these missed, luckily for me, but others hit - even 2 +4 overloads was enough to result in more damage scored on me than my own alpha strike did to the Fed at range 3. The threat of these weapons certainly makes you think twice before closing down on the Fed, even if he has only two torpedoes in the tube. The Lyran Tiger is also a remarkably tough ship, having as many hull as the Fed CA without having that unbalanced distribution of forward and rear hull, it is substantially tougher than the Klingon D7. This means you can take a decent pounding (so long as you don't get unlucky with your damage dice) without becoming combat ineffective.
The Lyran CA is generally a bit smaller and less capable all-round than the Fed CA in my opinion, although the better turn mode is helpful in giving you the initiative over the Fed and Gorn ships of equivalent size. However, these two ships are about an even match in a duel, because of the Lyran's ESGs. With Disruptors and ESGs, the Lyran player can play a saber-dance tactic, and if the Fed does want to close the range to try for the point-blank photon shot then he will have to risk the ESG ram that likely follow if the Lyran can position himself for it, as it will be difficult for the Fed to get a range 3-4 shot and then not get closer to the Lyran.
Overall, this was a good fun game that wasn't decided by a single set of dice, and was all the more fun for this. In the end, what made the Fed have to withdraw was a lot of weapon hits, making the CA almost impotent despite not having taken many power hits and so otherwise being a combat-effective unit. The overall result of this battle was a minor victory to the Lyrans, since they forced the Federation ship to disengage. However, both ships were moderately damaged (and had next to no shields left by the end of the fight), hence the victory was not major.
