We managed to track a Kzinti SSCS led formation in today's campaign meeting.
Their course was projected and we met them in open space with a seriously considered task force consisting of:
1 x C7, 2 x D6P, 1 x D7E (IKV Mystique), 4 x D7K and 1 x AD5
The IKV Mistique was providing jamming for the task force in ambush and other patrol scouts were keeping tabs of the Kzinti SSCS group's progress.
Contact was made in large open space and the Kzinti force was determined to be made up of:
1 x SSCS, 1 x SC, 1 x CC, 6 x CH
I flew the D7E and 2 x D7K
Dave flew the C7, AD5 and 1 x D7K
My son flew a D7K and both the D6P.
We did a feint attack on the Kzinti formation and then turned tail and headed away at speed, dumping cluster packs and firing Drones at the pursuing Kzinti cruisers.
Meanwhile, my son, in command of the D7K and D6P squadron, headed off of a tangent from the SSCS and away from us at speed 20 charging up weapons.
As cunningly planned, the SSCS lagged behind the cruisers because of its slow acceleration and speed. But then it spots the D7K and D6P squadron out on its own and decides to head for them. This was part of our plan.
My son turned towards the SSCS and dropped speed to 15. He switched control to one of the D6Ps and the distance closed. For some reason the SSCS player must have made the big mistake of not having the target tactical scan display up because what happened next definately caught him by surprise.
The SSCS dumped out Drones and what wasn't PDed splatted on boosted forward shields.
At Range 2, as the Klingon ships were about to overfly the SSCS, the D6Ps let loose all 8 of their Plasma Torpedoes, dumped Suicide Shuttles and fired everything else capable of firing. The result was a fatal for the SSCS as it just stopped dead.
Meanwhile, a big starship dogfight was happenening about 180 clicks away and carnage was in progress. The enemy seemed to be confused by the D7E tag and must have assumed that it was an anti-Drone cruiser, like an D5E and not a heavy cruiser scout. They generally steered clear of it. The C7 and AD5 did attract a lot of fore and the AD5 was taken out.
When the SSCS was trashed by the D6Ps, the SC and CC broke off and headed for it. I broke off with the D7E and gave chase but ran into an aft Drone salvo, reducing mt speed to 16 for a while. I still managed to knock the last of the CC's aft shield out with what weapons still fired. Meanwhile, the SSCS was nuked out of existance by a Drone salvo from my son's D7K. He now turned away, at speed 20, from the closing SC and CC to charge up the Plasmas again.
Meanwhile my crippled D7E had attacted the Vultures and a battered Kzinti CH started after me. Luckily Dave had spotted it and popped out to deal with it. However, the CH managed to loose of a fair amount of Drones which caught up with me damned quick,taking out all power. Speed dropped to 0.
However, I had some hangar left and launched a Shuttle on protect me. I locked a Tractor onto the Shuttle and then told it to head for my son's D7K. It worked as I was moving at maybe speed 10, being towed by a Shuttle. This eneabled me to focus what power I had left on repairs. I managed to launch a second Shuttle on protect me mode.
Both my own D7Ks ended up destroyed. The surviving Kzinti CHs, Drone racks exhausted, were now in trouble and were trying to cut their losses and running for the map edge, but Dave kept forcing them to turn and fight with his battered D7K by taking pot shots at their shield gaps.
My son took out the CC's forward shields and weapons systems with the D6Ps and then turned to engage the SC. He ordered his D7K to back up Dave way over the map.
My D7E could manage speed 20 now and the bow Ph1s were back online. I had traces of forward shields and decided to have a go at the disabled CC. Dave's D7K failed to stop the CHs from exiting the mpa edge. Only two Kzinti CHs had survived.
A quick check with Dave revealed just how bad things were on his last ship. He was out of spares, lacked power, had two Phasers left and was out of boarding parties, so I suggested that he sit the rest of the battle out as we didn't want to loose yet another heavy cruiser.
The SC was making a run for it from the middle of the map and had my son's posse in pursuit. I wasn't going to catch the SC and the CC had died before I was even n range. I set course for Dave's D7K hulk. and left my son to catch the limping SC. It died in pretty spectacular fashion well short of the map edge.
The campaign computer was told the battle results and both sides issued new orders to their respective survivors. In our case, we ordered the fleet back to a starbase to await the arrival of reinforcements from the rear line reserve pool deployment zones or to attach up other survivors.
We figurethat the Kzinti players did the same with the 2 x CHs.
Somehow, I don't think the surprise element of the D6P "Plasma boats" will work again next time we use them. The tactic we used won't work again either.
Other skirmishes were a few one on one with scouts fighting scouts. These were Kzinti infiltration probes and missions. The puny Kzinti FS is no match for the L22 BOP or K2 Artor. Also some Kzinti FS were intercepted when they attempted to attack lone border skiffs and gunboats on our flanks.
One of our infiltration L22 BOP scouts, deep inside their lines, has detected a few interesting targets for later.
We'll see what the Kzinti players do tomorrow afternoon (Sunday), when we continue the campaign.
Meanwhile there is much celebration of a victory, at last, on the Klingon side.
It cost us a lot though in D7Ks, AD5 and C7!!
Our current losses look like they'll exceed the BPV bonus for replacements. We might end up having to use D5s to replace D6K and D7K losses, if we want to keep numbers up.
Topic: Anyone care to talk tactics? (Read 42352 times)