R vs B Alliance Turn 14 in Review

by on October 15, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Sorry for the delay here, but Bel got a new job that promptly ate a few months of his life. He seems to be back, and hopefully we’ll have semi-regular reporting again.

The Alliance economy continues to do well, with income up 3.4 EP from the previous turn (this is mostly from the Kzintis, though the Hydrans had a couple of disrupted provinces to offset a small loss in the Federation economy).

The Kzintis finished setting up a new PDU on 1504 and built their full schedule, including their third CVA, and converted their Z-D5 to a D5S. The Federation canceled all but five FFs in an effort to start catching up on cripples, while building a CVA and CVS. Y175 sees the introduction of the NAC, the best escort the Federation gets (still not as good as the D5A or MEC), and I produced four while converting two others to start getting heavier Federation carrier groups.

The Kzinti concentrated on reclaiming their last planet in 1105, and sweeping the Lyrans out of their territory. This also involved strikes at 0404 and 0707 to pin reserves, hitting border BATS 0504 on the way.

Meanwhile, the Federation did not do much of anything near Kzinti space, preferring to strike at southern Klingon space, and cut off the Tholian Border Squadron SB from the main grid. Operations against the Romulans were confined to the eastern end of the border, where the Romulans were upgrading a new mobile base to a BATS.


Kzinti offensives.


Operation “Mortain”.


Operation “Onion”.


What passes for activity in Hydran space.

Battles:
2015: Klingon: crip F5S
2214: Klingon: dest F5E, crip D5, D5V, AD5; Federation: dest CC, DE, crip CL, capture planet
2216: SSC: Klingon: dest D7; Federation: crip FF, capture planet
1918: Klingon: dest BATS
2518: Klingon: dest F5, planet captured
2318: Klingon: 4xSIDS, crip D6M, 2xD5; Federation: dest DN+, FF
0519: Lyran: dest cripFF, planet captured
0702: SSC: Lyran: retreat
0404: Lyran: dest DW, FRD, crip 2xCW; Kzinti: dest BC
0504: Lyran: dest BATS
1106: SSC: Lyran retreat after no damage
1105: Lyran: dest 2xDW, FF crip CL, 2xFF; Kzinti: crip CM, MEC, capture planet
1004: Lyran: crip CWE
0904: Lyran: dest 2xCL, FF, cripFF; Kzinti: crip CM
2716: Klingon: crip D6, 2xD5, F5L; Federation: crip NCL, 2xFF
2815: Cloaked evasion
2914: SSC: Romulan: dest K5
3113: SSC: Romulan: dest SN
3812: Romulan: crip SN; Federation: dest CA, FF, crip FF
3912: Romulan: dest SP, WE, SK, crip 3SK, K5L, 2xK5; Federation: dest CL, 2xFF
4010: Romulan: dest BATS; Federation: dest FF, crip FF
1808: SSC: Klingon: dest cripD5
1609: Klingon: crip D6, D5; Kzinti: dest FF, crip FF
0707: Retreat after refused approach

NZ planet 2214 changed hands again as USS Napoleon showed up with a slightly larger fleet than was with C8V Vindicator. While I won, and did more damage, Bel is getting aggressive with mauling valuable ships.

I was a little surprised that Bel took 4 SIDS on the SB in 2318 in one round, but it is probably the best choice. Most of his available fleet was cruisers, and if I can keep interrupting the supply grid in the region, the SB will fall given some effort anyway. I had two DN+s, so he mauled the one on the line.

Bel has had a crippled Lyran SC garrisoning the edge of Kzinti space (after it got away from a BC last turn), and a poor roll (2) allowed it to get away from the DD I sent to kill it.

The Lyrans had to suffer another 6/1 split in die rolls at 0404, allowing the Kzinti to do more damage while fighting at a defended SB. The Kzinti fleet retreated on top of neighboring BATS 0504 and blew it up, leaving only one Kzinti border BATS left.

There were three small combats near the 7th Fleet SB, and the Romulans blew their cloaked evasion rolls on two of them, and then had poor SSC rolls to lose two out of five ships without even forcing a retreat from the Federation ships.

The MB upgrade in 3912 was a primary target, but after passing approach on the first try, minimal rolls left me unable to direct on the MB. I pulled out after three rounds before I dug too deep into the ships that are needed to defend my SB and planet 3711.

Turn 14 scoring:
Coalition: 369.8 EP (x2) + 555 (bases) + 569 ships (/5) + 100 (Hydran Capital) = 1508.4
Alliance: 336.8 EP (x2) + 475 (bases) + 550 ships (/5) = 1258.6

Difference = 249.8 Major Coalition Victory

Regaining the Hydran capital puts the score back to being comfortably in the major victory category. However, the situation isn’t as good as it was even a year ago when the Romulans joined (291).

Amazingly, the Federation overall lost seven ships this turn, though the Kzintis made up for that with an eight-ship increase. Meanwhile, all three Coalition empires lost shipcount. The loss of three Coalition bases also did much to erode the score.

Much more importantly, a decent chunk of Klingon space is cut off from the main grid. He should be able to restore it, but since the best base-to-base distance in the area is now 5 hexes, it should be easy to keep cutting it off each turn.

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R vs B Coalition Turn 14 in Review

by on May 10, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

The Romulan economy continues to pick up steam with the last bit of on board survey, and some Federation provinces. However, the Klingon economy shrank by ~27 EP, to put the total Coaltion economy down by 21 EP.

The Klingons also canceled the bulk of their schedule in preference to maximizing repairs, and got about a third of the way through the cripple pile sitting on the capital. This technically is a problem for ship count, but many those cripples have been useless for turns now, and it means he returned a lot of heavier ships to active service (capital repairs were 2xD7C, 3xD7, 4xD6, D6M, 4xD5, 2xF5E). In addition, the Lyrans and Romulans had large repair bills, with the total Coalition repair spending hitting 78.5 EP.

Also, B10-1 Invincible rolled a ‘1’ this turn, putting it one point short of completion….

Naturally, the Hydran capital got a lot of attention, with most of the forces in the area going into the hex, and smaller forces into the surrounding space, trying to trap the Hydran fleet.

A substantial Klingon force moved onto the planet in 2715, and I send a couple ships from the 7th Fleet to reinforce the defenses, but then just about every Romulan ship in the area piled onto the SB. The 3rd Legion spread a number of small ships from 3415 over the region to interfere with sending reserves before the balance of the fleet joined in.

There was a fair amount of move-and-countermove along the Federation-Klingon border as Bel moved to kick me off various planets in Klingon space. In the north, moves were mostly confined to pulling more forces out from being cut off by Kzinti fleets. However, the Lyrans moved their Kzinti-front forces to re-take 1105.

Two of my reserves went to their obvious posts of reinforcing the Romulan-border SBs, but otherwise I largely avoided the big fights in order to provide a decisive advantage in certain small fights.


Near Kzinti space.


Move and counter-move.


The Romulans put more pressure on the border.


Piling into the Hydran capital.

Battles:
0617: Uncontested retreat
0518: Klingon: dest F5, F5S, crip F5; Lyran: dest FF
1105: Kzinti: dest CM; Lyran: dest DWE, capture planet
1003: Lyran: dest CWE, DWE
1007: Lyran: dest DW
1307: Klingon: crip D6V, AD5
1004: Lyran: crip FF
1210: SSC: Kzinti: dest FF; Klingon: capture planet
1209: unopposed withdrawal
2715: Klingon: dest D6M, D5V, AD5, F5E; Federation: dest CL, 2xFF, crip CL, 2xFF
2815: SSC: Federation: dest FF
2915: Federation: dest CL, 4xFF, crip CC, CA, TG, 2xNCL, 2xCL, DE, 6xFF; Romulan: dest KR, 2xSP, SPB, SPF, 3xSKE, 2xSNB, crip 2xFH, 3xSP, WE, BH, 2xWH, 2xBHE
3213: SSC: Romulan: dest SN
3114: SSC: both sides retreat
3014: SSC: Federation retreat; capture SN
3410: SSC: Federation: crip CL, retreat; Romulan: dest WE
3412: Federation: crip NCL
3611: Romulan: dest KRM, 2xKE, FAL, 5xSP, crip FH, FAL, SP; Federation: 3xSIDS, dest NCL, DE, FFE, crip DN+, NCL
3711: Federation: dest CA; Romulan: dest 2xSP, crip KRM, SP
3812: Federation: dest BATS; Romulan: crip SK
2414: Retreat after refused approach
2416: SSC: Federation: dest FF, crip DD, retreat
2216: SSC: Federation: dest FF; Klingon: crip D5, capture planet
1916: Klingon: dest F5
2214: Federation: dest DD, FF, planet captured
1812: SSC: Klingon: crip D5, retreat
2014: SSC: both sides retreat
1913: Federation: crip NCL; Klingon: dest F5E
1911: SSC: Klingon: dest FV
1713: unopposed withdrawal
1611: Federation: dest NCL, planet captured
1712: Federation: crip CC, FF; Klingon: dest D7, F5E, crip FV, F5S

0617 didn’t go anything like Bel had planned. To be honest, it didn’t work the way I thought it would either. A careful reading of the capital assault rules showed that with zero defenses in place, I could basically retreat out before combat. It seems odd, but it also seems pretty clear. Bel had abandoned the major planet in 0718 to force the Hydrans out of position, but there were two major problems with that idea. One, while it immediately reverts to my control, the planet doesn’t become a supply source until the next turn. Two, he only had a single line of pickets between the capital and the Old Colonies, so as soon as I retreated onto it, I was in supply.

Planet 2715 was a fight I was determined to win, but had doubts about. I accepted approach to kill the one mauler present so that Bel would have a hard time just killing the PDUs to make it easier to take next turn. Once over the planet, my ComPot was substantially higher, and Bel retreated out, self-killing ships to avoid pursuit. I don’t know why he killed his carrier….

Bel had a nice large fleet at the 7th Fleet SB in 2915, but it was thin on larger ships, meaning I mostly had to outlast the initial heavy line. This was aided by me rolling an average of two over Bel, and he retreated out after I killed a SKE to force the SUB group off the line, and then I got his SPB group in pursuit.

I could easily outlast the Romulans in 3611 against the 6th Fleet SB, except he brought three maulers and started directing SIDS. I killed two and then the third one shocked and he retreated out leaving the SB at 4xSIDS.

The obvious choice for the 2nd Federation Reserve was to send it to the NZ planet in 2214 and make a fight for it. However, I didn’t think the odds were good with the reserve, so I sent it into Klingon territory and planet 1916, where a Klingon squadron was picking on the garrison FF, and now I have a battle line central to several points of internal infrastructure.

My CVAs in Klingon space ended up in adjacent battles. Bel let me withdraw out of the first one in 1713 (I was tempted to stay and bleed him, but I want the forward carrier group in good shape for my turn), and probably should have retreated onto the other battle. Instead, I retreated into a position that would get cut off if I didn’t hold 1712. I had lots of fighter reserves (18 fighters on carrier tugs), but Bel had full carrier groups to shuffle through, and I retreated on the second round after we exchanged high-low rolls. (Thankfully, his retrogrades opened up supply.)

Overall, I’m happy with the continued chaos inside the Klingon Empire, but while I’m holding off the Romulans (I really did not think I’d manage to hold on to 2715, 2915, 3611 and 3711), they are starting to drive deeper into Federation territory.

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R vs B Alliance Turn 13 in Review

by on March 8, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Economically, turn 13 was fairly good. The Kzintis earned 94 EP, greater than their base economy of 93. This is kind of inevitable, as the slow expansion off off-map territories drives up income, but is also a sign that the Kzinti territory is in good shape, with all but one of their planets back in their possession, all but one of those producing income again, and all but one of those producing at the full undevastated rate. This allowed them to repair everything, produce a full schedule, convert a CVL up to a CV (while producing the standard one CV per turn), convert the remaining captured D5 to Kzinti service, install a third PDU on 1502, and produce a PDU that is being set up on 1504.

Meanwhile, while the Federation economy is not unhealthy (211.4 income), they could only afford around half of the waiting repairs, and despite telling myself that I needed to maximize carrier production, only produced one CVS; instead opting to produce the second CVA pod, which immediately went to the TG with the 6th Fleet.

While I wanted to hit some major targets near the rim of the galaxy, including the Klingon Tholian Border SB, there were too many ships in the region (including way too many Romulans still near the 7th Fleet SB) to be able to do much. Elsewhere, my main target was the Klingon Fleet, which had a number of poorly-supported elements scattered around their northern area. This was complicated by the fact that the Lyrans are still capable of reaching the Kzinti capital, so large chunks of the Kzinti fleet need to be able to retrograde back to cover that.

While I’d like to push the Lyrans out of Kzinti space proper, the Klingons are still taking up too much attention, so a decent fleet was sent to 1001 with the idea of trading some fighters for some cripples, and wear the Lyran garrison down over the course of a couple turns.

Bel had, to my surprise, left me an opening in Hydran space by not retrograding his forces from last turn’s battle back to their base at 0416. I was able to pin the force in 0119 with the bulk of the forces still in the Old Colonies (I was worried that Battle Group Blood in 0117 would react and spoil the show, but they didn’t), and then the 2nd Fleet swung around the other Klingon/Lyran forces to attack the captured Hydran capital! This is ordinarily important as the hex is providing 9 EPs to the Coalition, but Bel had just started setting up three different MBs in the hex, so he was planning on making it much harder to take in the near future.


Kzinti offensives.


Operation “Clean Sweep”.


Operation “Limited Target”.


Home again…

Battles:
3516: Romulan: BATS destroyed
3415: Romulan: dest SPH, crip SP, WE, FAL, K5L, SNB; Federation: dest 2xCC
3313: Cloaked evasion
3412: Cloaked evasion
2815: Romulan: dest WE; Federation: dest FF
2516: Klingon: dest E4; Federation: crip DD
2315: Klingon: crip E4A; Federation: crip FF
2216: Klingon: dest 2xPDU; planet captured
2014: SSC: Klingon retreat
1916: Klingon: dest 2xPDU; planet captured
1812: SSC: Federation: crip FF, retreat
1611: SSC: Klingon: dest PDU; Federation: crip CL, capture planet
1810: SSC: Klingon: retreat
1612: Klingon: crip D7C; Federation: dest CA
1909: Klingon: dest crippled D5
1709: Klingon: dest D5, crip 2xD5, 2xF5L; Kzinti: dest Z-D5, crip BC, CM, EFF
1605: Klingon: crip F5E
1305: Klingon: dest E4, crippled E4
1408: Klingon: dest D6D; Kzinti: crip FF
1210: Klingon: dest 2xPDU, planet captured
1209: Klingon: dest BATS
1009: Klingon: dest BATS
1001: Unopposed withdrawal
0801: SSC: Lyran: crip SC, retreat
0803: Lyran: dest 2xFF; Kzinti: crip 2xCM, FF
0519: SSC: Lyran: crip 2xFF; Hydran: crip CU, retreat
0119: Unopposed withdrawal
0617: Lyran: dest 2xDW; Klingon: dest E4; capital captured

I was a little surprised that the Romulans didn’t send a reserve to both major battles on their border, and was even more surprised that Bel was initially prepared to retreat out of the fight that he sent the reserves to (I did still have a larger force), and he was surprised when I retreated out. But the mission was to kill the MB being set up in 3415 and the adjacent BATS, and get back to the 6th Fleet SB. Bel obviously tried to block the way home, but thanks to retreating out of both hexes, I could just manage a retrograde path back. On the other hand, he killed two CCs, and that is going to hurt.

There were a few SSC fights on the Klingon border, and I didn’t roll well on any of them. Both sides have a negative modifier in 2014, so that wasn’t so surprising, but I had to go two rounds against a single PDU in 1611, and I couldn’t do more than kill the fighters of a lone FV in 1810 with a +3 roll.

I was surprised that Bel sent both Klingon reserves after BG Napoleon instead of rescuing the major planet in 1611, or interfering in other fights. Having been out of supply, it was low on fighters, but was still a powerful fleet, once back in supply for combat. Unable to get the damage to cripple a carrier, he mauled a CA in formation….

…And then he mauled the D5 in Kzinti service in the next battle. It’s disappointing to see it go, but it’s already been in several battles, and crippled more than once, so I got good service from it. In return, I managed to kill a D5 during a pursuit battle.

I was surprised that the Lyrans were willing to let 1001 go without a fight. He’s still in range of the Kzinti capital, but now there’s no supply there, and no place to retrograde to if he raids it, so there’s significantly less danger to it than before.

The Lyran reserve went to 0803 instead of the planet, so he had a good line versus a half line that was picking on some province garrisons. With some extra reserves, I’m not sure why he self-killed frigates, since the Lyran economy is in great shape.

If I’d been thinking, I’d have left a ship in 0319 so I’d be able to string supply through 0519 to the capital, no matter how temporarily. As it is, the fleet is in a partial grid, and not replacing fighters.

I was hoping to do a bit more damage to the Klingon fleet this turn, but it really is hard to force someone into a fight he doesn’t want, and I wasn’t really expecting to take out another four planets this turn.

Turn 13 scoring:
Coalition: 390.8 EP (x2) + 570 (bases) + 570 ships (/5) = 1471.4
Alliance: 333.4 EP (x2) + 480 (bases) + 547 ships (/5) = 1256.2

Difference = 215.2 Major Coalition Victory

Eliminating the 100-point bonus for the Hydran Capital still doesn’t shift this down from a major victory (barely), partially because of the addition of further Romulan bases as they survey and activate their backfield (I may have forgotten to account for some of that last turn). The Coalition also gained 35 ships this turn, mostly with the Romulans. Meanwhile, the Alliance gained 46 ships, even with the Coalition mauling away cruisers.

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R vs B Coalition Turn 13 in Review

by on February 4, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Bel surprised me by cancelling a number of smaller hulls across all three empires on his turn. The Klingons are struggling with a massive cripple backlog, but there was spare money left in all three treasuries.

My stat tracking shows this is the highest amount of stored EPs the Coalition has had since turn 2, and Bel’s comments indicate that he’s looking forward to the shift to 75% economy on turn 16.

Bel naturally leaped on the out of supply Hydran fleet, and swiftly reclaimed planet 0518, while the Lyrans sent a tug over to the Hydran capital and started setting up a MB at Hydramax.

After that, the next goal of Bel’s movement was to engage Federation forces in the central Klingon Empire, and force them off of the two planets I’d captured. Notably, he pulled the five ships (including a C8 and D7C) still administratively marked as the North Fleet out of Sector C to help deal with this. There was very little movement near Kzinti space, only picking on a couple ships outside the range of all my reserves.

The Romulans continued their invasion, heavily hitting everything around the 7th Fleet and 6th Fleet SBs. They did not drive further into Federation space, instead aiming to widen the gap in the frontier.


The kicked anthill


Activity in the central Klingon Empire


The Romulan invasion continues

Battles:
0519: Planet captured
0418: SSC: Hydran: dest KN
0317: Hydran: dest LN; Klingon: crip D5
0908: SSC: Kzinti: retreat; Lyran: retreat
0705: SSC: Kzinti: dest FF
2518: Fed: dest CL, FF; Klingon: dest D5, recapture planet
2214: SSC: Fed: retreat; Klingon: retreat; planet goes neutral
1714: Fed: dest NCD; Klingon: crip D7C, D6, D6M, F5E, capture NCD & planet
1815: SSC: Fed: dest FF
1715: SSC: Fed: dest FF
1713: Fed: crip NCL, CL, FF; Klingon: crip 3xF5
1514: SSC: Fed: crip FF, retreat; Klingon: crip F5, recapture planet
3613: Fed: dest BATS, CL; Romulan: crip SP
2816: Fed: dest BATS, crip 2xNCL, FF, FFS; Romulan: crip SP, SPB, SK, 2xSKE, 2xBH
3016: Fed: dest BATS; Romulan: crip SP, SN
2915: Retreat after refused approach
3611: Retreat after refused approach
3711: Fed: crip FF; Romulan: crip KRC, FH, SP
3612: Fed: crip CC, CA, FF, dest FF, 2xPDU; Rom: dest SKB, SKE, K4, crip KE, WE, capture planet

I would have loved to re-open supply to the main Hydran fleet with the Hydran reserve, but I realized that combat supply is only re-evaluated at the moment that battle hex is resolved. If I picked a fight to re-open supply, and that hex was evaluated first, I’d have to win the fight so as not to retreat back off map, and the reserve wasn’t that big. So I reinforced the fight with a few ships that were at full combat power, and luckily only lost a DD this time, and have retreated into supply.

1714 was our first fight between CVAs (USS Napoleon and C8V Vindicator), but the Klingons had about a half-line of reserves, while the Federation was a ship short of a full line. As it was, I had a slightly higher ComPot, and rolled one less to do the same damage. Bel’s second ship capture in as many turns is annoying, but is still a long ways from the seven ships I’ve captured.

Bel ended up retreating out of both SB battles without fighting. In one case, I had no fighters to take damage on, and in the other, he had a fairly heavy line he could put up. I expected him to come in for at least a round on both, so held out for the extra firepower of the SB. In the second one, he was thinking of overrunning an adjacent planet, but since there was an alternate hex free of my forces, he had to go there or do a fighting retreat. Since the planet was where my second reserve had gone, that wouldn’t have worked out.

BATS 3612 had minor forces from both of us, and dragged out across five rounds of largely crippled lines as it could go either way. He had a bit more in the hex, but I took my damage to preserve ComPot, and had the bigger line for a couple rounds. Damage rolls were even until ComPot was too low for it to matter much. In the end, I had to retreat, but the three survivors are on the 6th Fleet SB, where they can be repaired.

While I can’t be happy about losing more border regions to the Romulan navy, the invasion is going much slower than I feared. I figured there’d be a major fights over both SBs this turn, leaving them with a lot of damage and cripples to try and make good.

In Klingon space, I’ll say that I had held onto things longer than I expected, and Bel is having to focus a lot of attention in the central empire to kick me out, while Kzinti and Federation forces continue to strip the northern empire of bases.

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R vs B Alliance Turn 12 in Review

by on January 21, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

The financial strain on the Federation is already showing this turn, as the reduction in economy combined with the number of repairs exhausted the reserves, and there was no money left to send the Kzintis this turn. Meanwhile, the Kzinti had to cancel a few ships to pay for all their repairs.

(This was from a mistake; I noticed late that I hadn’t used the Kzinti free fighters on the previous turn. >.< )

There’s a few Kzinti cripples piling up in the Barony again, but things are under control. Most of the Federation cripples were handled, with a notable exception at the 6th Fleet SB, but two SIDS there were repaired by the TG.

The Federation continues to put out a fantastic number of ships, including the fourth CVA, USS Julius Caesar. The Kzinti produced their second CVA (Olympus), and converted the captured F5 converted to Kzinti service last turn to a Z-F5E as its outer escort (I haven’t heard any commentary from Bel on this yet). The Hydrans continue working on the new shipyard, and converted an NCV carrier group from their small stock of war cruisers.

The Hydrans saw a chance, and pinned one group of the Coalition fleets guarding the Old Colonies before sending out a fleet to 0416 to try and reduce the heavy defenses there. Meanwhile, the Federation was not feeling up to challenging the Romulans with the forces available, and avoided combat while moving up the bulk of the 5th Fleet to 3808.

The Kzinti pulled back from 1001, and assaulted 1202 without interference while heavy fighting continued near the Kzinti/Federation/Klingon border area. For the first time, Kzinti forces entered Lyran space, as they pinned a reserve by assaulting BATS 0705. Further forces hit the Klingon planet in 1407 and BATS 0908.

Part of the Federation 7th Fleet moved to take out BATS 2519, and Bel was smart enough not to react and let on 2518 take out other targets unhindered. Other forces hit several targets in Klingon space, including a strong force that piled onto the Southern Reserve SB, and forced his main reserves to go there, instead of saving other targets. I also sent ships to take major planet 1611, prematurely activating the 3rd IWR squadron (I had carefully avoided doing any such thing last turn since I didn’t want to release it and the 2nd IWR early).


A short-lived offensive.


Kzinti offensives.


Operation “Great Attractor”

Battles:
0519: SSC: Klingon: dest E4; Hydran: retreat; planet reverts to Hydran.
0416: Lyran: dest 2xPGB; Hydran: dest DG
0119: Lyran: dest STT; Hydran: dest RN
2519: Klingon: dest BATS; Federation: crip NCL, FF
2214: SSC: Klingon: crip D7, retreat; Federation: capture planet
1514: SSC: Klingon: dest F5L; Federation: crip FF, capture planet
1712: SSC: Klingon: dest cripD5; Federation: retreat
1716: Klingon: 2xSIDS, crip AD5, F5E, 2xE4A, dest FRD; Federation: crip DN+, 2xNCL, dest ECL
2014: Klingon: crip D7, dest BATS; Federation: crip 2xFF
1916: Klingon: crip D6; Federation: crip CC, CL, FF
1611: Klingon: crip D7, F5S, dest 3xPDU; Federation: crip 2xNCL, CL, 2xDD, dest FF
2009: SSC: Klingon retreat
1910: Klingon: crip D6, D5, F5L, dest 2xF5, E4A; Federation: crip CA, DD, 5xFF, dest 2xCL, capture planet
1808: Klingon: dest F5
1705: Klingon: dest D6
1708: Klingon: dest F5
1304: SSC: Klingon: crip E4, retreat; Kzinti: retreat
1205: SSC: Klingon: retreat
1107: SSC: crip D5, dest E4, retreat; Kzinti: crip CL, retreat
1407: Klingon: crip F5E, dest 2xPDU; Kzinti: capture planet
0908: Klingon: dest BATS, cripE4
0705: Lyran: crip STT, dest BATS; Kzinti: crip, 2xCM, SF
1202: Lyran: dest PDU; Kzinti: capture planet

The Hydrans saw a chance and took it, but it isn’t working out. The bulk of the navy is now cut off and out of supply, since I didn’t leave enough at the border to force a Coalition retreat. I also wasn’t considering just how nasty the defenses over 0416 have become. A low Lyran roll helped, but a low roll from me kept me from getting rid of all the PGBs, and there’s still a spare MB and FRD at the SB. I’m thinking it would have been best to wait a turn or two for the major push and see if the Federation can manage to disrupt Klingon supply into the area first.

With all the defenders, I wasn’t going to kill the Southern Reserve SB, but I went in for a round anyway and killed the FRD to restrict future repairs there. I was a little surprised by the self-inflicted SIDS, but considering our high rolls (5-5), we were both scrambling for things to take damage on. I think with about a dozen more ships, I could have forced the SB, but this was really a diversion. If he didn’t send the reserves here, I’d have taken it out, and Bel can’t really afford that.

I would have liked to take the planet at 1916 as well, but that was to tie down the other Klingon reserve, and I didn’t bring nearly enough to take on the C8V Vindicator. (I am glad I wasn’t facing that over the SB.)

Good Klingon rolls in rounds 2 and 3 probably saved 1611. I had hoped to take the planet, but had to retreat out with a lot of cripples and no fighters. The good news is that 3/4 of the defenses are gone, so it will need a lot more ships to defend in the future. Of course, being in reaction range of the capital, this may be the only chance to take it on the cheap I’ll see….

I expected a much tougher fight for 0705. Bel could have stuck it out a few rounds and burned through some of my forces since I had no spare fighters, but decided to avoid taking much damage himself.

Star Fleet is feeling pretty battered at the moment, with a lot of cripples, and didn’t make some its goals in Klingon space. I’m not sure just how much I’m going to be able to do next turn. On the other hand, Klingon supply points are disappearing fast to the north. It’s probably time to put a little pressure on the Lyrans, though actually consolidating and garrisoning northern Klingon space to reduce income has to become a priority.

Turn 12 scoring:
Coalition: 380.6 EP (x2) + 545 (bases) + 564 ships (/5) + 100 (Hydran Capital) = 1535
Alliance: 324.4 EP (x2) + 495 (bases) + 501 ships (/5) = 1244

Difference = 291 Major Coalition Victory

Adding in the Romulans makes a big difference in the war. More disturbing to the Coalition is that the Alliance gained 24 ships this turn (mostly Federation) while the Romulans and Klingons lost ships. Only the Lyrans came out 10 ahead, and the overall difference isn’t that big. If this keeps up the Alliance will soon overall have more ships just as the western economies start faltering.

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