Rindis.com

The Alliance economy climbed by forty points this turn, showing just how out of control the situation is. Even the Hydrans went up 14 EP before exhaustion (for an actual increase of 10.5 EP), with the Gorns showing the smallest improvement. After exhaustion, total income was 378.1, and repairs hit a new record, with the Gorns providing most of the increase. This was also helped by getting Orion back, which I just had had no chance to deal with last turn.

Builds:
Federation: DNG, CA, CF, NCA, 10xNCL, NCD, NSC, 3xDW, 2xDWA, FFB, 9xFF, BP+, 2xFF->FFB
Kzinti: NCA, 3xCM, 3xDW, 2xFFK, 2xFKE, FF, CVL->CVD
Gorn: CCH, BC, CM, 2xHD, LTT, BD, 2xBDE, BDS, DD, BD->BDS
Hydran: MKE, HR, DWE, 4xCU, MB->BATS

The good news is that Kzinti shipbuilding is curtailed, skipping both their CV and BC. The Hydrans are mostly treading water, but are installing a BATS on their capital, which I probably won’t be able to dislodge. And of course, the Federation and Gorns are building ships much faster than I can.

Raids concentrated on the Klingons, with all four Kzinti raids hitting Klingon provinces near the capital, and three Federation raids just south of it. Five of these resulted in disruptions, and I lost a JGP and D5 and had a D5 crippled in the reaction fights. The Hydrans hit two Klingon garrisons in Hydran space, and part of the captured neutral zone. I didn’t bother responding to the last, but the increased garrison groups paid off by destroying the single existing THR. Another Federation raid hit a D5 near the Kzinti border, but good rolls and a reacting F5L killed the DNL for no loss to the Klingons. The last two were in Federation space, one which killed a D5 while a WE cloaked away from the last one. The Gorns sent one raid into west Federation space to kill a garrisoning F5, and Romulans escaped from two attempts to kill garrisons just inside Gorn space, and a last raid disrupted a Romulan province.

The Hydrans naturally attacked toward the Lyran-Klingon corner again, and I intercepted a good amount of it, but he was still able to put a good fleet of about 20 ships on 1013.

The Kzinti started driving south immediately, scattering fleet elements on anything in their way, including sending a bunch of Auxes after the garrison on 1504. The North Fleet started a fight at the NZ planet in 1506 by reaction, but further reinforcements freed up the Kzinti garrison already there. Federation forces moved into to pick off various small forces, and partially pinned the Lyran and Klingon fleets at 1810 before the Kzinti sent another wave at the Northern Reserve SB and BG Harbinger at 1611.

Then the 3rd Fleet moved to the Klingon capital. Or tried to, as NE Fleet moved to intercept… which caused consternation. Byron had entirely missed that it was there underneath the Lyran Fire Squadron marker. Since it was a heck of a thing to miss, I let him go back and rework his moves some, but no matter what, he wasn’t going to have nearly as much in the capital as he’d originally thought. Part of the original planned move was to pin the Klingon 1st Reserve on 1312 (assuming it didn’t react), which he gave up on, but I reacted it into the capital at one point anyway, as he still had good opportunities to do so with the Kzinti, and it was to his advantage to keep the capital as lightly defended as possible (I’m not sure why he didn’t spend some more effort on it, as well as the 3rd Reserve on 1209).

Over on the Romulan side of things, two major thrusts developed: one near Tholian space aimed at picking off the BATS in 3319 and retaking 3415 as well as threatening the SB, while Gorn and Federation forces also concentrated on the corner area near all three. One major thrust also went to 3612, which I stopped part of, but not enough to save the planet, since that would just make 3711 vulnerable.

Second strike at 1013.

The Kzinti flood.

Federation tidal wave.

Losing the rest of the are near the Tholians.

Gorn border offensives.

Naturally, all available reserves (three: Klingon 2nd and 3rd, Lyran 3rd) went to the Klingon capital. The Lyran reserve in Hydran space went to help near the Hydran capital, and one in 0707 had nowhere to go. I had to think long and hard about how serious 3518 was, but sent both Romulan reserves in range to make sure of the SB. Meanwhile, the 2nd Reserve went to save BATS 4010.

Battles:
0916: SSC: Hydran: dest 2xCU
2008: SSC: Klingon: dest cripD5
2313: SSC: Klingon: crip F5; Federation: crip FF
2411: SSC: Klingon: dest 2xF5
2612: SSC: Klingon: crip F5
2514: SSC: mutual retreat
2613: SSC: Klingon: dest cripF5, F5S
3115: SSC: Romulan: crip WE
3412: SSC: mutual retreat
3609: SSC: cloaked evasion
4108: SSC: cloaked evasion
3319: Romulan: dest BATS; Federation; crip 2xFF
2308: Klingon: dest E4A
2309: Klingon retreat
2815: Klingon: crip D7C, F5; Gorn: crip HD
2012: Klingon: dest F5; Federation: crip FF
2215: Klingon: dest BATS, cripD5
2214: Klingon: dest FRD, SAV, cripD6, cripD5, crip F5E, E4A; Federation: dest DE, capture planet; Gorn: crip 2xCM
1507: Klingon: dest F5L
1809: Klingon: crip D6, F5; Federation: crip CA; Kzinti: crip CM
1810: Klingon: crip F5; Lyran: crip CW; Federation: dest CA
1611: Kzinti: dest FKE
1411: Klinshai: dest MB; Kangor: dest SB, 4xPDU, devastated; Kangorax: dest 2xPDU, devastated; Kangor-Ultra: dest 2xPDU, devastated; Kadrak: dest 4xPDU, crip SB, devastated; Drakis: dest 2xPDU, devastated; Shadrak: dest 2xPDU, devastated; Klardon: dest 4xPDU, devastated; Vordon: dest 2xPDU, devastated; Aradon: dest 2xPDU, devastated; Klingon: dest D5W, 2xD5, F5E, crip 3xD7C, 2xD6M, 6xD5, D5V, AD5, 3xF5, F5S, capture MEC; Lyran: dest CWE, DW, FF, crip STT, CW, CWE, DW, FCR; Federation: dest BT, NCA, CA, NCL, 3xCL, 7xFF, crip CA, 14xNCL, 5xDE, 2xDW, 8xFF; Kzinti: dest 2xMSC, CLD, 2xDW, FKE, SDF, crip CC, 5xCM, 5xMEC, CLE, DW, 3xFKE, 2xEFF, 3xSDF
1511: Kzinti: dest FF
1509: Retreat after declined approach
1504: Lyran: crip 2xCL; Kzinti: crip FF, capture planet
1506: Klingon: crip F5, F5E; Kzinti: dest 2xFFK, crip FFK
1013: Klingon: dest BATS, F5W, F5, F5J, crip D7, 2xD5; Lyran: dest MB, 2xDW, crip CW; Hydran: dest 3xRN, LN, crip RN
1815: Klingon: crip D5, 2xF5
0717: Klingon: dest F5L, E4, crip D7C, F5; Hydran: dest CU, crip HR
0816: Hydran: dest POL
2211: Lyran: dest DW; Gorn: dest BD
3518: Romulan: dest SKE; Federation: dest FFE
3612: Romulan: dest WE, SN, K5S; Federation: crip 2xNCL, capture planet
3415: Romulan: dest SP, SK, K5, crip KE; Federation: dest FFE, crip 3xNCL, capture K5, capture planet
3611: Romulan: crip SK, SKE; dest CL, crip FF
3413: Romulan: dest SNB; Federation: crip FFB
4110: Romulan: dest BATS; Federation: crip FF
4109: Romulan: dest SNB
4310: Retreat after refused approach
4411: Retreat after refused approach
4010: Retreat after refused approach

Some of the smaller combats went fairly well, including great rolls in 0916 to wipe out two CUs (who had little business taking on a DW and LTS to begin with…), but Byron managed to arrange for one retreating group to overrun the survivors of an earlier battle in 2613, and that wiped them out.

Byron put the entire pile of cripples from the destruction of the 3rd Fleet SB onto a patrolling F5V group in 2308, which sacrificed the escort to get away. This trick of finding battles for cripples so they can retrograde further has been getting common lately. The F5V was forced to retreat onto a waiting Gorn CM, but poor rolls allowed it to get away from that.

Overshadowed by other events, there was no real backup for my repair center on 2214. The Federation/Gorn force was bigger and better than what I had available, leaving me to pull some cripples out and a LAV.

I had the clever idea of using a fighting retreat to pour BG Harbinger into the capital from 1611, but of course Byron sensibly didn’t resolve that fight until later. At the capital itself, I started fighting at one system per round, determined to extract the highest bill I could over my own defenses. The outer systems quickly got stripped, and then it turned into the real brawl as he started taking on the two non-capital SBs, with me putting a line in front of both. Byron directed the PDUs over a couple of rounds, (when he didn’t drop damage on ‘6’s to force auto-kills…) while leftover damage reduced my mobile fleet to less than two lines worth. (Later on, I realized that cripples could go to the static forces of any system; handy if I wanted to sacrifice a few ships for more rounds against him… but it took a while to wake up to that.)

Midway through, I used the capital SB’s fighters to refill empty bays elsewhere on the same round that Byron captured a Lyran FF, and he took a round at Klinshai itself to blast the Lyran MB set up there, the FF aiding in a deception operation. I had command difficulties elsewhere, but but at the capital, I could bring out Insatiable, the almost-complete B10 that’s worth 19 on the line (no crippled side, so it still needed protecting in form). Another ‘6’ allowed him to kill the MB with 26 left over…. The Klingons mauled a MSC and dropped 61 with a mere ‘3’ roll. A ground attack to kill a PDU while he was there failed, and I ended up capturing the MSC. (With that damage, other ships died, but the random roll came up with the best of all of them.)

To my surprise, Byron left after only crippling the second SB. He’s correct that it’ll be a problem to repair, and isn’t worth a lot crippled, but I figured he’d want finish it off now rather than later. I picked off a couple things in pursuit, but both sides are pretty shattered. Of course, he has a lot more scattered around than I do, and the Klingon economy isn’t worth a lot at the moment…. Even after going through the logs in detail, I don’t know how many rounds this actually was, but it was probably in the mid-teens.

The fight in 1504 was interesting in that the Kzintis had 2xLAV, 3xSAV and no escorts. They ad-hoced a bunch of FFs so they couldn’t just be directed on, but it meant there was very little capable of pursuing me when I retreated (especially since I directed on one of the few FFs not busy escorting a slow unit), and Byron only realized the problem at that point.

I had the advantage at planet 1506 (where the North Fleet had reacted to) but I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to tangle with a pair of CVDs with 24 fighters to punch through. But I went in, and picked off a couple FFKs in pursuit, though crippling the F5E is going to give me trouble, since the only spare light escorts there are E4As.

The Klingons rolled three better than the Hydran on approach to 1013, doing two less damage to a decidedly superior line. (If the Lyran STL hadn’t shocked last turn in the same place, I probably would have won the approach; that round at any rate.) I forced him to go through the co-located Klingon BATS to kill the Lyran MB, and kept rolling well enough to kill ships, which is something I’ve been needing to do to the Hydrans. But now the Lyrans have almost no supply into Hydran space.

Planet 3612 was something of a disaster. The Federation force was slightly small, so I decided to damage it and retreat, but but I was a good group, and I ended up sacrificing half my group to keep the carrier group intact rather than slowly cycle it through the repair process. I should have just sacrificed one ship and left, which I had almost done.

Coalition: 413 EP (x2) + 530 (bases) + 793 ships (/5) = 1673.2
Alliance: 409.4 EP (x2) + 435 (bases) + 815 ships (/5) = 1579.8

Losing the Klingon capital was a near thing. I had set up last turn to try and hold as many Alliance ships out of that vulnerable location as I could, which is why it didn’t happen. If I hadn’t had the NE Fleet in the way (which hadn’t moved on my turn because of its position in the way of the 3rd Fleet on 1910), the capital would have fallen, and I would have surrendered the game. There’s no real recovery from losing the Klingon shipyard at the best of times, and there’s certainly no SB that the Klingons can guarantee will be out of reach of a powerful Alliance force for six turns right now.

The last several turns has been me going from one disaster to the next, but this was the first one I was… partially ready for. I had hoped to hold the outer systems better than I did, and the economy is going to be a mess. The current plan is to go on a bit longer, but this game is on a short countdown to an end. There’s not a lot I can do to push back on the large number of places that are falling apart, and those are staging points for ever-larger numbers of Federation ships to pound what’s left. Worse, important Lyran bases have been taken out, so they will be largely useless next turn (and after unless I can re-establish some).

Overall, the Alliance economy was up 5.8 EP this turn, most of this came from the Federation, while the Hydran economy expanded a little to offset losses to the Kzinti. However, the Hydrans and Kzinti also hit the first stage of exhaustion at this point, which dropped the actually total collected from 368.8 to 342.5 EP, which is still comfortably ahead of the Coalition.

Builds:
Federation: CVA, CF, TG, NCA, 11xNCL, NSC, 3xDW, 2xDWA, FFB, 8xFF, FFE
Kzinti: NCA, 2xCM, LTT, 3xDW, 2xFFK, 3xFKE, VAP, 2xCV->CVH
Gorn: DN, BC, CMV, TG, HD, LTT, BDE, 4xDD, MB, CL->CLE
Hydran: RGR, TG, MKE, HR, PGC, 3xCU

At some point, the Kzinti CVH was bumped up in date to match the various scout carriers that get heavy fighters before general availability. I’m not sure how many the Kzinti will convert over, as there are some logistical problems, but the more he converts, the more they can feed each other. The appearance of a Kzinti CVA pod is also a bit ominous, as the Klingons are far from affording theirs.

The Hydrans swapped out a RN for the new RGR and added a PGC to the raid pool, which eliminated a crippled D6 left near the capital. The other Hydran raids hit the far end of their space again, eliminating a E4 and F5L, and liberating the last province that was still under Long-Term Capture. The Kzintis added one of two available DNLs to the raid pool, which went after a Lyran garrison DW, but a BC reacted from 1105, and crippled the DNL for no damage. The BFs hit Lyran space again, and successfully raided two provinces. The Federation added a CF to the raid pool to join the three DNLs, which all went after Klingon ships in Federation space, and killed a F5 and crippled an E4 (the latter all by itself, surprisingly, while the F5 had help from a second one, and another F5 target fought off the DNL with help from a C5), while the CF raided in Romulan space, and a POL kept it from raiding the province. The Gorns added nothing to the raid pool, with an attempt to kill a SNB in Federation space crippled it, and a SNB in Gorn space was forced to retreat.

The first offensive that developed was when the remnants of the Gorn 2nd Fleet crossed the border. They were the only ships in range of SB 4411, and weren’t enough to deal with it, so the SUB group and all the SB fighters reacted out, as Byron was about to do a maneuver he’d done before, where he moves between two BATS, and then move on to one, with nothing on the other able to react. The entire fleet stopped for my reaction, and later the 3rd Fleet moved out and hit BATS 4310, adjacent to where the 2nd had stopped.

In Hydran space, the fleets moved out, and it was obvious they were headed for 1013 where the Lyrans had a MB co-located with the Klingon BATS, which does a lot of Lyran supply in the area now. The 2nd Fleet purely pinned the Lyrans, and then the Home Fleet moved out, and I threw everything I could its way so the force that made to 1013 might be manageable.

The Federation drove a broad-front offensive against the Romulans, clearly intent on recovering 3509 as well as making a solid attack on 3612, and hitting the end of the Romulan line of BATS near the Tholians. They also attacked the Tholian Border Squadron, while sending a huge force against 1910, doubtless making up for the fact that I’d managed to take it on his last turn.

The Kzinti struck back south, leapfrogging their major fleets to pin the Klingon North Fleet and then assault 1506 and 1407. There wasn’t too much to be done about that; while I’d sure like to retain possession of my own planet 1407, the Kzinti can put way too much force into one spot for it to be practical with the continued Federation offensives.

Hydran offensive.

Kzinti offensive.

Federation offensive.

More Federation offensives.

Gorn offensive.

Battles:
2308: SSC: Klingon: E4 dest
2012: SSC: Coalition retreat
3412: SSC: Romulan: crip SNB
3413: Cloaked evasion
3314: Cloaked evasion
3313: SSC: Romulan: dest SNB
3317: Romulan: dest BATS; Federation: crip CF, FF
0815: Hydran: dest HN
1013: Klingon: crip D5; Lyran: crip STL, DW; Hydran: dest PGS
0516: Lyran: dest CL, crip DW; Hydran: dest NEC, AH
0616: Klingon: crip F5, E4A; Hydran: crip SA
1407: Klingon: dest G2; Kzinti: capture planet
1506: Klingon: dest F5L; Kzinti: capture planet
1405: Klingon: dest D6, F5G, crip D7, D5; Kzinti: dest CM, FKE
1809: SSC: Klingon: dest G2
2108: Federation: dest FF
1910: Klingon: dest D5, crip D5, F5; Federation: dest DN+, FFE
2010: Federation: dest FFS
2511: Klingon: dest D6, D5, crip CVT, D6, D5; Federation: dest NCL, crip NCL, 4xFF; Gorn crip BDE
2615: Klingon: dest D5; Federation: crip 2xNCL, FF
3415: Cloaked evasion; Federation capture neutral planet
3414: Romulan: dest SNB
3114: Romulan: crip SP; Gorn: crip 2xDD
3612: Romulan: dest SKE, crip KE, 2xSP; Federation: dest NCD, DE, crip FF
3512: SSC: Romulan: dest cripK4; Federation: dest POL
3213: Romulan: crip SP; Federation: dest NCL
3516: Romulan: dest BATS
3611: Romulan: crip WE, capture CL; Federation: dest 2xCL, crip FF
3509: Romulan: dest 2xSKE, crip SPB, WE; Gorn: crip CL, BD, 3xDD, recapture planet
4410: Romulan: dest BHE; Gorn: crip 2xDD
4310: Romulan: dest FHF, capture BC; Gorn: dest BC, crip DD

Given the importance of MB 1013 to maintaining a Lyran presence in more than a corner of Hydran space, I expected Byron to come in, take any lumps, and blow the MB. So I accepted approach, and put up a good line, including Stormtooth, the new replacement STL. Byron had actually had no intention of forcing the issue in the face of my two reserves, and left after the first round; sadly, Stormtooth failed its shock roll (which is only a 6, instead of 5-6 on d6, thanks to the DN hull), leaving the Lyrans still down a DN in theater after one was crippled last turn. There was also a little confusion over the CSV; Byron hadn’t properly realized that the Lyrans had built the first scout carrier.

I still have a decent force near a couple of Federation worlds, and naturally they came under attack in 2511. The Allied force wasn’t too much better than mine, but had some important advantages (such as actual CR10 vs my D7C in command), but a good first round had me stick around, and then a poor second round pretty much eliminated what I had gained, and forced excessive cripples.

3512 was an odd little fight with a Federation POL trying to finish off a crippled K4. Both sides rolled an ’11’, so the POL got close for an accurate photon volley, only to find that plasma wasn’t a pseudo, and both ships were eliminated.

The Federation showed how much it wanted planet 3509 back, by sending four ships… and a Gorn fleet. I was holding it with a single battle line, and Byron used the DNT to cripple my SPB group to kill in pursuit (an approach I’ve contemplated a time or two, but I’m usually not in a position to try it). I inserted a BHE into the group, and he was unable to do more than kill the escorts in pursuit.

Coalition: 413 EP (x2) + 560 (bases) + 804 ships (/5) = 1715.6
Alliance: 368.8 EP (x2) + 460 (bases) + 805 ships (/5) = 1519.6

The slide continues, with the Coalition now only registering a Tactical victory. In some ways, the news may be worse than it looks. The Alliance total is about the same as a turn ago, but this is largely because of the loss of the Gorn SB in 4206. All the Alliance fleets have expanded at least a little, and the Federation by nearly 20 ships. Meanwhile, the Romulans are down 13 ships, thanks to that same assault, though the Lyrans managed to gain 8 ships.

Most critical, the Federation has moved solidly into southern Fed space, and set up a cordon around the Orion Enclave. Beyond the likelyhood of the Federation getting a very important shot in the arm from that, communications between the Klingons and Romulans are probably forever cut, especially with the loss of the only Romulan BATS in range of 2715. The current KR spare parts will last through turn 26….

The erosion of the Coalition position led to a hefty 30-point jump in the Alliance’s economy, with the Kzinti getting the most with a 12 EP jump, powered by the recovery of most of their provinces. This allowed for more robust shipbuilding, but specialty ships are still restricted to scouts and some replacement escorts.

Builds:
Federation: DNG, NCA, 12xNCL, 3xDW, 2xDWA, FFB, 11xFF, NCL->NSC, 2xFF->FFS, 2xDD->DE
Kzinti: NCA, 2xCM, LTT, DW, 3xFKE, FF, CM->MEC, EFF->FKE
Gorn: CCH, BC, CM, 3xHD, 2xBD, BDS, DD, FCR, 3xCC->CCH, CL->CCH
Hydran: TG, 2xTR, DWE, 4xCU, 2xHN

They Hydrans raided east Hydran space, picking off an F5, and crippling another, and also hit Lyran space to pick off a POL and disrupt the province. The Kzintis sent two raiders into Lyran space and disrupted provinces, while the Feds picked off an F5 in Kzinti space. A Fed DNL tried to pick off a couple out-of-supply Klingons in western Fed space, but a D6 joined them, and the DNL was only able to cripple an F5. Another DNL tried to take out a patrolling E4, and got a D7C in response, which fought it off (poor roll). The Gorns hit a couple Romulans patrolling Gorn space, and picked off a K4 while a SNB evaded.

The Hydrans did their standard move on the homeworld while pinning down the Lyran reserve force, and the Kzinti made another move against the Lyran border SB. The Federation naturally send the 4th Fleet against the remnant of the Klingon NE Fleet that was holding the major planet in Federation space. Further south, efforts were made to pin most Klingon forces, and send a good combined fleet against the fortified planet in 2715. The group holding the Klingon planet in 1611 mostly bugged out, and attempted to take NZ planet 1910. Byron apparently didn’t realize that the Lyran Fire Squadron was nearby and had no other business, so it reacted onto the planet, along with an adjacent D6, giving him a fight he was not equipped to win.

Early activity on the Romulan front concentrated on taking 3210 back, but a decent force moved on 3711 later, generating a series of separate fights, as various detached forces intercepted pieces of the move. Finally, the Gorns tried a thrust against the SB in 4812, but the 3rd Star Legion intercepted and pinned most of it, and the Gorns halted just inside the border.

The same old dance.

Kzinti expansion.

Throwing the Klingons back across the border.

Gnawing on the flanks.

The Lyran reserves naturally went to save the Kzinti border SB again, while the Klingons sent a reserve each to help 1105 and 2715. The 1st Reserve in 1312 was positioned so as to help in Hydran space if they started trying do more near the old border, and so merely sent two ships to fight on the Federation border. The Romulans sent two reserves to save 3711 from a combined Federation-Gorn force, and sent the third to BATS 4010.

Battles:
0918: SSC: Klingon: dest cripF5; Hydran: crip CU
0519: SSC: Klingon: dest F5, crip D6
1809: SSC: Federation: crip FF
0703: SSC: mutual retreat
0214: Lyran: dest CW; Hydran: crip 2xHN
0617: Klingon: dest F5V, E4A; Hydran: dest LN, capture capital
0404: Retreat after declined approach
0504: Lyran: dest DW; Kzinti: crip CM, cap DW
1105: Lyran: dest STL, crip DW; Klingon: dest C9A, FRD, crip D6M; Kzinti: dest MSC, 2xFKE, crip MEC, 2xCL
1404: Klingon: dest F5E, crip D5, AD5, F5; Kzinti: dest FKE, SAD, crip CM
2006: Klingon: crip 2xF5; Federation: crip CL
2307: Klingon: dest cripD6; Federation capture D6
2306: Klingon: dest F5L, E4V, E4A
1910: Lyran: dest DWE, DDG; Federation: dest CA, DW, crip NCL, FF
2010: Klingon: crip F5L; Federation: crip FF
2409: Klingon: dest D5, E4A, crip D6M; Federation: dest DE, crip CC
2711: SSC: Klingon: dest F5
2511: Klingon: dest 2xF5, F5J, crip D7C, AD5; Federation: dest NCL, FFE
2715: Klingon: dest BATS, E4, crip 4xD5, 3xF5; Federation: dest DE, SWAC, crip NCL, planet captured; Gorn: dest BC; crip 2xCM, CLE, 2xLTT, BDE
2814: Klingon: dest E4
3210: Romulan: dest KE, WE, crip FH; Federation: dest CA, crip 3xFF, capture planet
3711: Romulan: dest FHF; Gorn: dest HD, crip 3xBD
3710: Romulan: dest SN
3610: Federation: crip FF
3609: Romulan: dest SNB
4010: Romulan: dest SKE; Gorn: dest BDS, crip BD
4810: Romulan: dest K4, crip K7R, KE, WE; Gorn: dest HD, crip DDG

My surviving F5 from Hydran raids was picked off by a CU+POL pair, but he rolled a 12 to get some revenge and cripple the CU. Meanwhile, he’d sent a PGV and an independent fighter squadron (launched from 6xPOL…) against the garrison of 0519, and they rolled high to nearly get both ships there.

The battle over 1105 was extremely painful. Byron’s real goal was to kill the Klingon FRD sheltering there, but even with 12 points of Kzinti DB, I had a higher ComPot, though the Kzintis could shift me. All the Lyrans had to do was roll equal to the Kzinti to prevent the Kzintis from getting to the planet (and FRD), but rolled one less instead. Worse, the Kzinti did 36 to exactly kill the STL. For the second round, I brought out the C9A, in the hopes of lowering his ComPot enough that he couldn’t kill it and get the FRD. On three attempts the C9A rolled ‘6’ each time, doing absolutely nothing for its efforts. VBIR went down, and the Kzinti did 18 exactly to kill the C9A. And then the mauler shocked, and I lost a PT on a capture attempt. After he killed the FRD, I attempted to pursue to kill a couple of cripples, but failed on that. This was a battle that could have been really painful for the Kzinti (holding him to approach for three rounds would have put him dangerously low on fighters), but instead I lost the FRD and two specialty dreadnoughts for nearly no return.

Planet 2715 needed more defenses, so I had finally gotten around to putting a PDU there to supplement the BATS. I knew this would probably generate an attack to stop it, but failed to shift as many units over there as I had intended (I’m just short everywhere, and got cold feet on weakening the East Fleet over by the 3rd SB). So it got hit by a larger Fed/Gorn force than I had expected, and I didn’t really have a hope of defending it. Except that the first two rounds were 1-6 and 2-6, allowing me to drop a lot of damage on a fleet without any real backup fighters.

Coalition: 417.9 EP (x2) + 570 (bases) + 809 ships (/5) = 1729.4
Alliance: 363 EP (x2) + 485 (bases) + 770 ships (/5) = 1519

The Klingons have been having one disaster after another, and now the Coalition is in the low range for a Major Victory, with no end of the slide in sight. Next turn the entire Coalition goes to 75% economy, on top of the contraction caused by successful Alliance offensives. The Kzinti and Hydrans will also go down to 75%, but their economies are expanding, and the Federation, the real problem will still be at 100% for some time yet.

Worse, the Alliance is nearly at ship parity (…it sure doesn’t feel like it, he has more ships than I do at any point that’s important), and all fleets are continuing to get bigger, with the exception of the Klingons who have net lost ~10/turn for the last two turns.

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Alliance survey rolls were strong this turn; especially the Kzinti who got 16 (+2 from a PT) on three dice, after rolling 15 last turn. Overall Alliance income was up, mostly from the Federation, which had regained a bit more control of their own territory.

Builds:
Federation: TG, NCA, 12xNCL, 4xDW, DWA, 11xFF, DN+->CVA, CW->F-CWE
Kzinti: TGC, 2xCM, LTT, 4xFFK, 1xFKE, 3xFF, CVL->CVD
Gorn: DNG, BC, CM, TG, HD, LTT, 2xBDE, 2xDD, FCR, CL->CV, CL->CLE, CL->CCH

The Alliance continued showing the signs of a cash crunch by subbing a lot of ships to smaller hulls, and much to my surprise, building no new carriers. Instead the Federation converted an existing DN+ into a CVA, while the Kzinti converted a CVL into a CVD. I’m used to seeing the Kzinti occasionally convert their CVLs into the larger CV, but not having played with CVDs before I hadn’t considered that conversion.

As usual, Alliance raids went well. The Hydrans raided province garrisons and the THR took out two Klingon ships for no losses, while the Lyrans fought off the raiding RN with three ships for no losses on either side beyond fighters and a wounded PT. (We recently realized that PTs get wounded much more often in SSC than we’d thought. Raiders with PTs on board is a good way to get a lot of them wounded.) The Kzinti raided two garrisons in their space, killing a DW, while forcing another to cripple and retreat. However, he’d meant to force my garrison off of planet 1202, and there was still a HDD there. The Federation hit two province garrisons in their own space as well as a G2 patrolling an ’empty’ province in the Empire, killing it, a DW, F5, and crippling a second F5. The Gorns hit a Romulan province garrison in Federation space and one in their own space; both ships missed their evasion rolls (again), and were destroyed.

Movement started with the expected every-other-turn Hydran move onto their capital, while also pinning down the Lyran reserve in the area. The Kzinti force in 1001 went after the Lyran SB on their border, leaving pinning forces on the BATS in front of it, and fighting the Lyran garrison in Kzinti space. Next, a force moved out of the Barony, picked up some extra ships over in 1802, and then headed back to the major planet in 1502.

And then everything turned into a disaster.

I had expected (for the last few turns) moves against the string of supply points from the Klingon border into Kzinti space. Certainly, a major move against 1504 was going to happen at some time soon. With how comparatively weak the North Fleet had gotten, I expected to see it last turn. This turn, I had some good reserves in the area, and expected to hold enough things to get the reshuffled FRD facilities into operation. But I had blinded myself to the fact that though I had forces blocking a direct move from the 7th Fleet on 2106, the 4th Fleet could easily pin all of that, allowing Byron to hit the Northern Reserve SB in in 1509, which is just what he did at this point.

Then the 3rd Fleet set out for 1611 again, diverting a few ships to claim NZ hexes and join the 4th Fleet along the way. If I had thought of it at the time, I could have reacted a ship into 2111 as he left, and then sent a reserve to that hex to win the fight, which could have blocked retrograde for the 3rd Fleet (he’d likely retreat off the planet to get in range). But I didn’t think of that until I was looking at reserves.

The western Gorn-Romulan border turned out to be less active than I thought as the Gorn 5th Fleet moved in towards the border, and then stopped to pick off a single SNB, while the Romulan navy stayed in place in case someone else went for the BATS later. Instead, he hit three of the four BATS further away from the Federation frontier.

Hydran offensives.

The Kzinti Strike Back

Further trouble in Klingon space.

Limited offensives.

Most of my reserves were pinned, but all three Romulan reserves were free to shore up defenses at three of the four spots he hit. The one free Lyran reserve was needed to save their starbase, and the one free Klingon reserve had two choices, but wasn’t sufficient for either one.

Battles:
0519: SSC: Klingon: dest F5L, F5
0418: SSC: Klingon retreat
0718: SSC: Klingon: dest E4A
0716: SSC: Lyran: dest FF
0715: SSC: Hydran retreat
0703: SSC: Lyran retreat
1202: SSC: Lyran: dest HDD
1103: SSC: Lyran: dest cripDW
1503: SSC: Lyran: crip CW; Klingon: crip E4
1703: SSC: Klingon: dest E4
1907: SSC: Klingon: dest TGA
2308: SSC: Klingon: dest F5L
2407: SSC: Klingon: dest F5
4009: SSC: Romulan cloaked evasion
4808: SSC: Romulan cloaked evasion
3313: SSC: Romulan cloaked evasion
3314: SSC: Romulan: crip SNB
2810: SSC: both sides retreat
0617: Klingon: dest E4
0517: Klingon: dest D6M; Hydran: dest LN
0518: Klingon: dest F5E; Hydran: dest LN
0115: Lyran: dest 2xDW, FF, crip CW; Hydran: dest TR, crip CU
0404: Lyran: crip NCA; Kzinti: crip SF
0504: Retreat after denied approach
1407: Klingon: 2xPDU, MON; Kzinti: crip BC, capture planet
1506: Klingon: crip D5, F5; Lyran: dest cripDDG, FRD, crip STT; Kzinti: dest FFK, capture planet
1405: Kzinti: dest cripFF
1307: Klingon: dest BATS, crip D6, 2xF5W; Kzinti: crip 3xCM, 2xDD, SF
1504: Klingon: dest D6M, E4A, LAV, crip D7C, F5, FTL, FTS; Kzinti: crip LTT, SAD, dest CLD, SAD, capture planet
1502: Lyran: crip BC; Kzinti: dest FFK
1509: Klingon: dest F5J; Lyran: dest FRD; Federation: crip 2xFF
1708: Lyran: crip CW, DW; Federation: dest NCL
1611: Klingon: 2xPDU; Federation captures planet
2006: Klingon: dest F5E; Federation: dest NCL
2505: Klingon: crip D6; Federation: crip FF
2610: Klingon: dest MD5, F5L, crip D7C, D5; Gorn: dest CCH; Federation: crip 2xNCL, capture planet
3311: Romulan: dest SKE; Federation: SKE captured
3415: Romulan: crip FHF, KR; Federation: dest 2xNCL, crip FF
3315: Romulan dest cripSNB
4310: Romulan: dest FHF; Gorn: dest HD
4710: Retreat after declined approach
4910: Romulan: dest BATS, WE; Gorn: crip HD
4809: Romulan: dest SK

The small battles around Hydran space picked off a number of ships, but a poor roll in 0715 left the Lyran squadron there, though it couldn’t do more than force a retreat on a good roll. An E4A sacrificed itself over the planet in 0718 while the D5 retreated into the province proper, holding it for the next Coalition turn. The capital battle didn’t follow quite the same script as last time, with the Hydran force staying in place after taking it, even while retreating back to 0416 after the main pinning battle in front of the hex.

I had thought the HDD had survived the battle in 1202 (crippled), since he only had two ships to pursue with. However, he pursued with just a BF, and since the ‘entire force’ was fast, it could automatically catch the cripple and kill it.

The Kzinti had put just enough on 1001 to be able to kill a SB, and as I expected, they hit the Lyran SB in 0404, forcing me to send a reserve to save it. Since the retreat had to go over the BATS 0504, I retreated with him to save that base too, but it forced me to move my cripples off the repair facility as part of the retreat.

I expected Byron to make sure of the Klingon FRD in 1504, during slow retreat if nothing else. But instead he dropped damage at the planet (when it wasn’t even in form) and took out the LAV and its E4A escort during pursuit. This had been the major Klingon staging point for the front, but there was more than enough Kzintis to take the entire (reduced) North Fleet, with 96 fighter factors available.

The Federation had way more in 3311 than the Romulans, who still had too much to withdraw easily, so the left behind a KR as the flagship and two SKEs and K5S, and everything successfully evaded other than one SKE, which was promptly captured. Overall, not too bad for the odds involved, but the capture still stung.

I was surprised by the places Byron did and did not pull out of after combat. The Klingons are in a lot of trouble, with the Kzinti hanging on to the planet in Klingon space they’ve captured, and the Federation leaving a five-ship force on 1611. However, there’s no Gorn ships left in Romulan space. The good news is that the Kzinti reserves are two ships each, but the Federation has reserves full of NCLs and FFs. I’m going to have to find some way to break his momentum in Kzinti space….

Coalition: 436.6 EP (x2) + 575 (bases) + 811 ships (/5) = 1772.6
Alliance: 333.8 EP (x2) + 490 (bases) + 744 ships (/5) = 1455.2

We are solidly into Major Coalition Victory territory now, and I expect the VP slide will continue for a bit yet, and the question is where will it bottom out. Both sides are losing some bases (the Coalition more than the Alliance, naturally), which shows we’re still headed for the middle-war period where offensives are confined to the ‘dead zones’ that are mostly supported by captured planets as sources of supply. At least, I can hope so; this turn has shown that major Coalition offensives are probably over; we’ll see about Alliance offensives. The real worrisome part is that all three Coalition navies are down ships from a turn ago, and worse, about half the Lyran CWs and DWs are currently crippled, with little prospect of getting them all going soon. Meanwhile, the Kzinti stayed at 197 ships, while the other three Alliance navies grew, with the Federation (naturally) leading the way, growing by 15 ships. I’m generally maintaining quality, with new carriers and and FCRs ensuring longer-term survivability, but I’ve got to get them in use better.

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

With the various problems Byron’s been handing me lately, the Alliance economy grew 20 points for this turn. That was mostly from the Federation, which is getting (devastated) income from two minor planets again, and controlled another 6 provinces than last turn. The Kzinti and Hydrans were up slightly, while the Gorns are suffering a couple contested provinces to make up for the NZ hexes they’re grabbing.

Builds:
Federation: DN+, 10xNCL, LTT, NSC, 14xFF, CP, NCL->NSC, DD->DE, 4xFF->FFE
Kzinti: 3xCM, LTT, 3xFFK, 5xFF, BC->CV, FFK->FKE
Hydran: TG, RN, 2xHR, LTT, 4xCU, 3xHN
Gorn: CCH, BC, CM, 2xHD, LTT, 2xBD, 3xDD, CP

That said, there’s still enough pressure on the Alliance to suppress expensive ship builds. The Kzinti didn’t build any of their large ships, and kept producing regular FFs and MCs despite having DWs and NCAs on the schedule, though they did convert a CV. The Hydrans finally have a shipyard again, and are spending their way through their stockpile.

The Hydrans did their usual two raids in the east end of their space, but I finally had things set up so that he couldn’t knock out my control of the provinces, and I forced a RN to retreat, maintaining full control over that province (crippling a F5 in the process). Both Kzinti raids were successful, and knocked the Lyrans out of a province again. The Federation only performed two raids, but knocked out the garrison of just recaptured 1910 to make that planet neutral again, as well as killing a province raider. The Gorn raids hit Romulan province holders, and again, both of them blew their cloaked evasion rolls, but he only crippled one in combat.

The Hydrans, possibly emboldened by having proper ship construction, came boiling out of their on-map planet, and pinned all the in-theater Lyran forces on the way to sending a large force to the Lyran SB in 0411. Actually, this is probably a consequence of not having any reserves in the area, but with how bad things are going elsewhere, there was too much need for the reserves elsewhere. The main Kzinti fleet also moved out (complete with auxiliaries) to retake 1202. Other elements stuck into Lyran space to take out a border BATS, and of course re-take 1802.

The latter included the Marquis’ Fleet, pulling the Kzinti back from their involvement in Federation space. The Federation struck at NE Klingon space again, attacking the Klingon supply tug for the area. A major portion of the 3rd Fleet headed to the interior of Federation space to confront various Klingon forces I’d left there, and I reacted onto the BATS that had been damaged last turn, which developed into a fairly major action. Forces in that area swept up other forces, and struck at the major Klingon staging point of 2715.

Offensives in the area of Romulan space were more subdued. The only major move was against the planet in 3711, though strikes were also made against the NZ planet in 3912 and two border BATS.

Hydran revenge.

Kzinti-Federation offensives.

Against the Klingons.

Strikes along the Romulan border.

My main central reserves on the Northern Reserve SB paid out, with one going to help the fight over the supply tug, and the B10 going to a small battle to get it as far into Federation space as I easily could. The Romulans sent a reserve to save the NZ planet, and everything else was pinned in place, with the exception of a Lyran reserve near the 3rd Fleet SB, which was out of range of everything.

Battles:
0211: SSC: Lyran: dest POL
0312: SSC: Lyran: dest CONV, POL
0317: SSC: Lyran: dest DW
0702: SSC: Lyran retreat
1708: Klingon: dest CONV
2008: Federation: dest CFF
3311: SSC: Romulan: dest SNB
3510: SSC: Romulan: crip K5L; Federation retreat
3809: SSC: Romulan: dest K5, crip SK; Federation retreat
3912: Federation: dest FF
5010: Romulan: dest BATS; Gorn: crip HCD
4808: SSC: Romulan retreat
0411: Lyran: dest SB, FF, SAV, FTS, FRD, crip 2xCW, 4xDW; Hydran: crip TR, 2xLNH, DDS
0116: Lyran: dest CW; Hydran: dest HR
0415: Lyran: dest CA, DWE; Hydran: dest 2xLN, capture DWE
0412: SSC: Lyran: dest POL; Hydran retreat
0502: Lyran: dest BATS, POL; Kzinti: crip MEC, FKE
0602: Lyran: crip CL; Kzinti: crip FF
1202: Lyran: dest FF, LAV, SAV, FTS, crip 4xCW, 6xDW; Kzinti: dest 2xBC, crip MEC, capture planet
1802: Lyran: dest CWE, crip TCB, CV, CWE, FF; Kzinti: dest EFF, crip FKE, capture planet
1702: Kzinti: dest POL
1601: Kzinti: dest cripFF
1809: Lyran: dest STT; Federation: dest FFE
1907: Klingon: crip F5E; Federation: crip 2xFF
2705: Klingon: dest F5L; Federation: crip FF
2609: Klingon: crip D7C, 3xD5, 2xF5; Federation: dest BATS
2712: SSC: dest F5
2810: Klingon: dest cripD6, cripD5, 2xcripF5; Federation: crip CFF
2715: Klingon: dest F5L, FRD, crip 3xD5, 2xF5; Federation: crip NCL, DE, 2xFF, 2xFFE
3207: Romulan: crip SUB, KE; Federation: crip CL, FF
3711: Romulan: dest KRM, SPC, crip SP, WE; Federation: dest SWAC, crip DN+, FFE; Gorn: dest BDE
4010: Romulan: dest KE; Gorn: dest BC, crip BD

4808 was an odd fight, as he pinned a province raiding SNB with a POL, giving me a slight edge in the battle. But I still rolled a ‘2’ to retreat while the POL was unharmed.

With just a few more ships the Lyrans could have held SB 0411. The Hydrans brought enough spare fighters for a couple rounds, and by the time they were out and losing fighter power on the line, nearly the entire Lyran fleet was already crippled. With some fresh ships, it would have started hurting.

I had a POL with the BATS in 0502, which I used to force an extra round of meaningful combat with the BATS, and he directed on the POL rather than let it retreat behind the base. He then did a fighting retreat over my province raiders from 0702 which had retreated into the NZ, but could only force a cripple on the CL, which I’ll try to get back into service as something bigger….

I had left too many big ships in the small garrison at 1802, so I had to fight it out a round, or throw away one of the big ones against a solid Kzinti fleet. The CV may get converted to a CVD, or just repaired and returned to the front. In the meantime, I did a fighting retreat over a POL and FF to destroy them for fighters, and ended up on 1502, which will allow the cripples to Strat back to real facilities.

As expected, Byron hit the supply tug in 1809 hard, but there was also a pinning battle in 1907, with a TAV3 (TGA+2xVP3) group, and I expected he’d retreat onto that. He didn’t, to stay in 1907, which allowed me an almost-even battle there (helped by having fighters to absorb damage).

I had reacted a bunch of ships onto BATS 2609, which I had damaged on my turn, and finished if off here. Byron wasn’t sure if he was happy that I’d had to fight the BATS twice, or upset that he’d let me take it out on his turn. The downside was it had meant abandoning a pile of cripples in 2810, which he wiped out.

2715 was another case of catching me with too few ships available, and he killed a forward FRD that I’ve been counting on. I was worried that he might try to take out the BATS there as well, but he would have completely wrecked his force in the attempt.

Byron more-or-less just pinned the trapped Romulan force in 3207, and realized later that he needed to pay more attention to it, as even out of supply it still had decent ComPot (26 to his 41). Crippling the SUB wasn’t what I really wanted, but it’s a single ship to repair, it’s buried in an intact group, and it was already out of fighters.

After discounting the 100 points my tenuous hold on the Hydran capital, the VPs for the turn show just how much my grip is slipping:

Coalition: 429.4 EP (x2) + 589 (bases) + 841 ships (/5) + 100 (Hydran Capital) = 1884.2
Alliance: 324.6 EP (x2) + 500 (bases) + 715 ships (/5) = 1435.2

That’s still a Decisive Victory, but it goes down to Major without the capital, which I probably won’t have next turn. The Alliance still has some major problems to overcome, but Byron is prying the strategic initiative from me all over the board. The Romulans are in many ways my best hope, and their navy is a bit fragile yet.