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Well, today was another round of SFB. A three-way free-for-all generic patrol scenario. Well, not quite generic: we had a planet and moon on board for terrain. It’s interesting how something like that can focus the action, even though it doesn’t take any active part in it. Usually, the battle will go drifting off to one side or another, but in this case it keeps heading back to the area between the two bodies.

Y136

I had followed my own earlier advice and only loaded the left side disruptors, which meant that from the start my plan was to turn right (showing my left side) and try to manage some sort of decent pass… against the Lyrans, who started on that side of me. We both ended up near the moon in the last quarter of the turn. He caved in the #6 shield of a CS, I managed to tractor a DD at range two in hopes of getting good drone hits.

Alas, it was not to be, the end of the turn hit, and the 2:1 power ratio for a long-range tractor beam meant he could devote a lot more power to negative tractor than I could afford, even with a bigger ship. So I slowed down from the power I spent trying to keep it up, and he ran away from the drones. On the other hand I got a fair number of close-range shots, crippling the DD while the Lyrans pulled out of the drone-infested area. I probably should have gone with my first instinct and done a 270 turn right to pass the moon back on the same side I’d come from and present the opposite side from my down shield. Instead I went straight and then U-turned left to present the other side that way while keeping myself behind the Lyran force, which was now approaching the oncoming Klingon force.

While I showed this was a lot more ungainly than I first thought, the Lyrans and Klingons traded a couple shots but did not come to close-quarters, not doing much more than weaken both left side shields of the CC. And I received some more long-range shots into my down shield for my trouble.

The Klingons then engaged me, knocking down the #2 on the other CS and at the beginning of turn 3 volleying disruptors at the FF and mostly missing. Between turn 2 and 3, the Klingons built up a respectable drone wave which I refused to clean up and passed on to engage the Lyrans again at the end of turn 3. I probably should have used my forest of ph-3s to clean the drones and pursue the Klingons where they have shields to match my weapons (that is, almost non-existent). The Lyrans volleyed and mostly missed the FF again, but it still had to eat a full strength ESG. In return, I knocked down a shield on the CC and started doing internals there.

We had to pack it up after energy allocation on 4, but hope to continue it online. I’ve got a damaged CS, a FF that’s getting beaten up fast against Klingons who only have a couple dented shields and a Lyran force that still potent but a bit worn. I’m winning on points, but if I disengage now, it’d give them enough points to even it out. So watch updates here as I try to keep from losing it all….

An extra note, internals stayed pretty close to the the center of the chart today. We’ve had a grand total of one Torp hit and one Drone hit in all the internals so far (and I had to do that one the hard way, with the collumn F hit on 9 instead of the A hit on 3).