Posts Tagged KwH

18 results.
Jun22

Konya wa Hurricane Alliance Turn 18

by Rindis on June 22, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: F&E

My ongoing F&E game with Byron continues to go slow; both of us have delays, though I’ll admit to being the bigger source of them.

The overall Alliance economy grew 32EPs this turn (after exhaustion effects. The Kzinti capital came out from devastation to pump another 13 points into their economy (before exhaustion), the Federation is still liberating their territory and picked up 23 points, and the Gorns picked up a province. The Hydrans lost a point, but the situation there is becoming more and more untenable for the Coalition there, and there is now a Hydran BATS over the capital.

Builds:
Federation: DVL, BC, TG, NCA, 10xNCL, NVH, NSC, 3xDW, 2xDWA, 5xFF, 4xFFE, NCL->NSC
Kzinti: CV, NCA, 2xCM, MEC, 3xDW, 4xFKE, CV->CVH
Gorn: DNH, BC, CMV, HD, TG, LTT, BDE, 4xDD, CL->CLE
Hydran: LGE, RN, MKE, DWE, 3xCU, PGC, PDU

Despite having a couple B10s available, the heavy ship situation is sliding away from me with Byron building two excellent heavy raiders, and the Gorns already having their DNH. He’s also getting into heavy fighters, though I have a few of those already thanks to the Lyran CSV.

The Hydrans moved the LGE and new PGC into the Raid Pool and concentrated on picking off garrisons in their space, killing a LTS, crippled F5, and F5S as well as disrupting a Lyran province. The Kzinti disrupted one Lyran province, one Klingon province as well as hitting a Lyran-held Kzinti province and killed a Lyran DW garrisoning Kzinti space. The Federation put the DVL into the Pool and hit three garrisons in their space and disrupted three Klingon provinces. The Gorns hit two ships in their space (one of which evaded, and the other was lost), and two more in Federation space. A DNL took a lucky hit from the Klingons to be crippled, while a WE reacted out of a Federation Raid to a Gorn one (targeting a SNB), the WE then evaded, but the SNB failed its cloak roll and was killed.

There is always some gratification in seeing a fair number of crippled enemy ships heading out of your space for repairs; sadly he has the money and facilities to make sure they return while I continue to struggle with my backlog. And another note to show how things are going is that Byron moved the Kzinti FRD in the Barony into the capital.

The Hydran fleet moved out to Klingon space, overwhelming my remaining pinning forces again, and hit the next BATS in line. The Kzinti mostly occupied themselves fighting in their own space on the supply line to 1407, but also sent a fleet back to the Klingon capital. Meanwhile, Federation moves concentrated in southern Klingon space, largely going after my depot in 2014 (original Klingon border BATS + Lyran BATS + auxiliaries), as well as the minor planet in 2216.

On the Romulan border, Federation forces shifted back northward (not everything shifted, but there were no offensives in the SW ‘wing’ of Romulan space), putting a large number of ships on the two Federation planets just within their border. The Gorns tried to draw the Romulans out with moves that stopped just short of the border. One happened late, and landed on the NZ planet with intent to take it, so I reacted out to defend it. Over in the east, he pinned a force on the last BATS in line while moving a fleet unopposed to the 4812 SB.


Hydran theater.


Kzinti theater.


Klingon theater.


Romulan theater.

While the Romulan priority has been to try and hold on to the planets at the corner of Federation space, the SB trumps that and two reserves went there, leaving only one to go to 3711. Similarly, two Klingon reserves went to their capital to try and keep the Kzinti out while the mess there is cleaned up. A Klingon and Lyran reserve went to save 1506, and one Lyran reserve was out of range of all combat (the third one was already at the Klingon capital).

Battles:
1505: SSC: Klingon: dest F5L
2515: SSC: Klingon retreat
3514: SSC: Romulan withdrawl + cloaked evasion
4009: Romulan: dest SN
1013: Klingon: dest F5; Hydran: dest CU
1214: Klingon: dest BATS, 2xcripF5
0916: Lyran: crip CW, DWG, FF; Hydran: dest CU
0816: Klingon: dest E4; Hydran: dest DG
1404: Lyran: dest DWS
1506: Lyran: dest FF; Kzinti: dest EFF
1411: Klingon: crip F5E; Kzinti: dest FFK
2216: Klingon: dest 2xPDU; planet captured
2213: Klingon: dest cripF5
2014: Klingon: dest BATS, LAV, 2xFTL, crip AD5, E4A, capture NCL; Lyran: dest BATS; Federation: dest NCL
2114: Klingon: dest D6; Gorn: crip CMC, capture D6
1914: Klingon: dest D7; Federation: dest FFE, crip FF
3515: Romulan: crip SKE; Federation: dest FF
3612: Romulan: dest KE; planet captured
3711: Romulan: dest NH, KRC, KE, 2xSP, SKE, 3xSN, crip SPB, SPM, SK; Federation: dest CF, crip 2xCA, 5xNCL, DW, DWA, FFB, FFE, planet recaptured; Gorn: dest DD, crip CLE, COM, 2xBD
4309: Romulan: dest SKG; Federation: dest 2xNCL
4710: Retreat after refused approach
4809: Romulan: dest CE
4812: Retreat after refused approach

The Gorns tried to pick off a pair of D5s in 2515 with a HD, BD, BDS squadron (giving me a -4 disadvantage in SSC), but the Gorns were way too overconfident (‘2’ on 2d6…) so the Klingons pulled out with no damage to find a better day to die.

Mostly the Hydran front was a bunch of walk overs where they sacrificed frigates (often with half their line consisting of such, including one ad hoced into the outer escort slot of a carrier) for better damage, but in 0816 a good Klingon force, good die rolls and a heavy EW advantage allowed me to kill a cruiser.

The Alliance’s return visit to the Klingon capital took some thought. My reserves plus BG Harbinger was a good force, but the Kzinti fleet was also large (though bulked out with FFs) with good fighter reserves. I eventually decided to accept approach and try to do some damage before he came in to finish off the crippled secondary SB. I managed a denser line (B10V Insatiable was a big help), and a 1-5 split on the die rolls allowed me to do twice as much damage, and the Kzinti left. With my denser line, I had an advantage on approach, I had a D5M to kill ships, and if it went the full three rounds of approach, the Kzinti force wouldn’t be very effective when he finally got to the defenses.

Klingon infrastructure continues to collapse with the Federation taking a planet in the southern Empire, and the loss of the dual BATS (Klingon/Lyran) in 2014. I still had a number of auxiliaries staged there and lost them all for little more than fighters. I did have enough to direct on an NCL the first round, and a lucky ‘2’ captured it, and it survived pursuit. In the next battle, the Gorns returned the favor to capture a D6. Byron isn’t too big on using captured ships (…and he is building enough already), so he may scrap it. Certainly the expense of turning it into something good like a D6S seems a bit excessive.

The Romulans aren’t entirely out of Federation space yet, but Byron did a good job getting them off of the two planets there. I had a single small line at 3612, and retreated out rather than see half of it crippled, giving up a KE in the process (I had hoped to evade out, but the VUL failed on the first roll). The combined Fed/Gorn fleet over 3711 was a lot bigger than mine, though my fighter reserve was a little bigger. I stuck it out a few rounds, forcing him to take decent casualties with overall good rolls, while losing ships to the DNT. Byron crippled an entire SPB group on the first round, which gave me a real problem as it was going to be vulnerable in a retreat. Stuffing a BHF into the group and going for -3 leftover points helped, but I did also run him out of a lot of ships including parts of his carrier groups and all the fighters.

Meanwhile, in 4309 we had a round of combat that neither of us wanted over the neutral planet in the Gorn-Rom NZ. Byron was going to retreat out after offering approach, but I didn’t want him stripping the defense PDUs to make seizing it easier later, so I accepted. I certainly came out ahead, but the Romulan navy is still feeling a bit fragile.

Coalition: 381.3 EP (x2) + 520 (bases) + 795 ships (/5) = 1600.6
Alliance: 446.4 EP (x2) + 445 (bases) + 860 ships (/5) = 1681.8

So not only has the tide turned, but the Alliance is now officially winning on VPs, much earlier than I had expected. This is a combination of the Coalition economy contracting at a furious pace, and the Alliance picking up about 100 VPs. Most of that is also the economy, and the fact that most of that is the unreduced Federation economy just makes it worse. Overall, my ship count is almost exactly the same as last turn, but the Romulans lost 8 ships overall, which was made up for by the Lyrans having a quiet turn. The Alliance has picked up 45 ships overall; more or less spread around, though the Federation alone is up by 23.

The good news is that I had no real disasters this time. Losing the double-BATS at 2014 for relatively cheap hurts some, but it was certainly an important target, and I do have bigger worries. I’m more surprised that the Kzinti did not spend any real effort trying to take half their space back from the Lyrans, or that if they were going to to go for the Klingon capital again, that there was no Federation help.

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Dec22

Konya wa Hurricane Coalition Turn 18

by Rindis on December 22, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

After the disaster and near-ending of the game last turn, this has slipped far down the priority list, but the game does continue. Bryon (and I, to be honest) is hoping we can get this to the introduction of PFs, which is getting close.

Income took a fairly deep cut this time, with the Klingons losing about 25 EP, and the Romulans down another 6. The Lyrans were up 1.3 EP due to a lack of raids into their space, for a total contraction of 30.7 EP (all before exhaustion), for a total income of 285.975 EP after exhaustion. Unlike last turn, I actually mostly prioritized new ships, planning to return to an emphasis on repairs next time.

Builds:
Klingon: B10, C7, D7, D5W, 5xD5, 2xAD5, F6, 2xFWE, 3xF5, F5J, B10->B10V
Romulan: NH, FHF, 4xSP, SPM, 3xSK, SEH, WE, [BC]->G-BC, WE->KE, SP->SPM, SK->SKE
Lyran: DN, TGP, NCA, CW, CSV, CWE, DW, 3xDWE, 3xFF, FRD, FTM

The Klingons cancelled their C8 for an extra roll on B10-3 (which got 5 & 1…) and it is now a couple turns from completion (34 points), while B10-2 Insatiable finished, and was converted to a B10V. Meanwhile, a D7 was substituted out for the first C7, starting the overall trend to bigger cruisers with CR 10. The Lyrans built a second scout-carrier, but the Romulans still need to find hulls and budget for their free fighters (another CNV would be nice, if expensive).

Both the Klingons and Romulans put a war cruiser into the the Raid Pool. Overall, raids did not go well. No raiders were damaged, much less destroyed, but called up POLs still managed to cause most of them to retreat. The Lyrans hit Kzinti space with both of their raids, and succeeded with one. All four Klingon raiders and three Romulans went for Federation space, and destroyed one FF, while disrupting three provinces. The SHR went after the Fed LTT in Gorn space again, along with another raider in Gorn space, but neither got anywhere.

The Klingons have a major cripple backlog to take care of, and the Romulans have a few more cripples than I’d like, so it was decided to keep their operations fairly minimal. The Lyrans meanwhile have worked through just about all their cripples, and went on the offensive, working to take a decent chunk of Kzinti space to force them off of an offensive deeper into Klingon space. Elsewhere, the Lyrans were limited to moving back towards supply, now that their grid in Klingon space had collapsed. The Romulans did a limited offensive, pinning a Federation reserve, while trying to retake some of their captured planets.


Lyran offensives.


Romulan counteroffensives.

The Federation only could move two reserves, and only used a couple ships from them, keeping me from taking 2106, and interfering with a Romulan sweep of ships out their space (I’d lost track of the fact that there was a reserve in range), while the Kzinti reserves went to the small fight in 1505.

Battles:
3318: SSC: Federation: crip FF
1410: SSC: Federation dest cripFF
2106: SSC: Klingon: dest 2xF5
1202: Kzinti: dest POL
1101: Kzinti: dest POL
0801: SSC: Kzinti: dest POL
1003: SSC: Kzinti: dest POL
1504: Retreat after denied approach
1505: Kzinti: dest CM, 2xDW; Klingon: dest E4A
3415: Federation: dest DWA, DE; Romulan: dest 2xSK, crip KE
3612: Romulan: crip WE, capture planet
3509: Federation: crip NCL, FF; Gorn: dest BDE; Romulan: dest VUL, K7R, crip 2xSK

Byron had left a single crippled Federation FF next to the Klingon capital, and I sent out a couple of cripples to finish it off, and retrograde back home. About a day later I remembered that the Federation 2nd Reserve was in range of the fight if he wanted to give me a big problem (…and himself a logistical problem), but the 2nd sent a CA and FFS to save 2106 instead, and my F5Ls took care of the intruder with no problem. The latter fight rolled 4 vs 11 in SSC, and I figure the Fed squadron just did a textbook Kaufman Retrograde to the poor F5s.

Part of the plan was to get the Kzinti Earl’s and Duke’s fleets on 1407 out of supply, and limit his options next turn. The reserves into 1505 threatened that, but I managed to retreat off of there (taking the planet, even temporarily would have been a good bonus, but not why I was there) onto the reserves, which weren’t very big, and took losses trying to stand up to a full line.

Sadly, after all of this, the main plan failed, as I hadn’t realized the Kzinti had one more POL to call up, which can restore supply to 1407 after a lot of effort to cut it off. If I’d actually taken 1504, it would have still worked, and I might have been able to do that, at a cost of notably more casualties, and probably fewer Kzinti casualties.

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Oct07

Konya wa Hurricane Alliance Turn 17

by Rindis on October 7, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

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).

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Aug28

Konya wa Hurricane Coalition Turn 17

by Rindis on August 28, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

The overall Coalition economy continues to contract, with the Lyrans picking up a little bit of ground, which didn’t make up for either Klingon or Romulan losses, which happened in spite of both of them surveying a new province. Adjusted income was 309.75 EP.

Builds:
Klingon: D7C, D7, D6J, D5W, 7xD5, AD5, F6, 6xF5, D6V->D6U
Romulan: CON, FHF, 3xSP, SPC, SPM, 2xSK, SKE, SEH, WE, SNB, WE->KE, SP->SPM
Lyran: BC, STT, NCA, CW, CWE, CWS, 2xDW, DWE, 2xFF, FCR

The Romulans worked through most of their cripples from last turn’s SB assault, but the Klingons are still dealing with a large number of cripples, and are currently cancelling some of the smaller ships to deal with it. They did convert the last D6V to a D6U, as I had planned, which eliminates that class of odd 5-point carriers. B10-2 rolled well, and is all but guaranteed to come out next turn. B10-3 only rolled a ‘2’; by average rolls, it should come out on 21, but there’s an outside chance that both could show up on 19, which might be a problem.

The Klingons put a repaired D5 back in the Raid Pool, and added an existing FD7 to start filling out the expanded pool. The Lyrans raided a Kzinti province, and killed a Federation FF that was holding a Klingon province, and preventing supply to BG Harbinger. The Klingons raided three Federation provinces, and the C5 was sent to try and crack the wall of ships built around the Orion Enclave, but all the raids were run off, with one D5 being crippled. The Romulans raided two Federation provinces, and one Gorn, and made another attempt to kill the supply LTT in 4007 (partially to draw out a ship from 4006, which was a likely target during the turn). Both Federation provinces were disrupted, but the LTT was merely forced to retreat, and a Gorn POL ran off a FFH to keep that province from being disrupted.

A primary problem was dealing with the solid wall of ships Byron had erected around the Orion Enclave to keep me from keeping supply to it, which would enable me to keep it neutral. There were a number of strong fleets nearby to complicate matters. The biggest problem was the fact that the Third Fleet had shifted forward to 1910 and stayed there, putting it in range of way too many important targets in Klingon space

But that meant the garrison on the 3rd Fleet SB was much reduced (consisting of the 4th Fleet, no longer needed near Kzinti space). So I started concentrating on tying down the reserves as best I could, and making one last try at it before the Federation started destroying everything I had left near it over the next few turns.

The Romulans had a heck of a time working their way out of the knot of Federation fleets near their border, but managed a good force to reclaim the NZ planet. To the north, they struck at the last Gorn border BATS, and had a decent fleet to take one of the Gorn-Fed border BATS while pinning a reserve there.

The Lyrans kept their activity light, going for 1504 in Kzinti space while backing up the Klingons elsewhere and keeping ships available.


Limited goals.


Limited goals.


The big push (again).


Trying to pull back more than a stump.


More BATS destruction.

The small Hydran reserves split between reinforcing 0416, and the small fight in 0916, while both Kzinti reserves went to 1504 (the only fight in range). The Federation 1st R (the only one completely unpinned) went to 3210, and two of the 4th R ships freed up there went to 3111, and the end of the wall around the Orions. The 3rd R in 2610 still had five ships free, and they went to 2509, which allowed the 2nd R there to send five ships to SB 2211. One Gorn reserve was stuck in 2610 with the bulk of the Federation reserve, and the other was stuck in 4006.

Battles:
3511: SSC: Federation: crip FF
3111: SSC: Romulan: dest WE
3412: SSC: Federation retreat
3413: Federation: crip FF; Romulan: crip SN
0416: Hydran: dest TR; Lyran: dest CWG, 2xDW, crip CW, DW
0916: Hydran: crip CU; Lyran: DW
0717: Hydran: dest LNH; Klingon: dest E4
1504: Kzinti: dest FKE; Lyran: dest DWE
2012: SSC: Federation: dest POL
2211: Federation: dest SB, CA, 2xDE, crip BT, CA, 9xNCL, DE, 5xFF, FCR; Klingon: dest 2xD6, D6D, D6S, AD5, D5S, F5L, crip D7, 3xD6, AD5, D5G, MD5, D5S, 2xF5, F5E, wound PT; Lyran: dest DW, crip DW
2509: Retreat after declined approach
2610: Federation: crip CA, NCL; Gorn: dest BDE, crip LTB; Klingon: dest F5W, crip 3xD5, 3xF5
3210: Federation: crip NCA, NCL; Romulan: crip SP, SK
3415: Federation: crip 2xNCL; Romulan: crip 2xSP, 2xSK
3315: Romulan: dest SNB
4408: Gorn: dest BATS
4006: Gorn: dest BATS, crip COM, DD; Romulan: dest SKF, K4, crip SPF, WE

Given an initial 53-point difference in ComPot, I wasn’t sure that I actually could take the 3rd Fleet SB, but it was the best shot I had to limit Byron’s ability to strike into Klingon space. One weakness he had was a limited number of CR10 ships, so I destroyed escorts to drive the CVA off-line, and Byron did some of my work by self-crippling a battle tug. Sure, it’s really efficient to repair, but my first goal was to get his line density down. By round 3, the difference was 17 ComPot, and I had the ships and fighters to take that, and some good rolls was helping. If he’d been willing to self-kill ships (and the Feds build enough), he might have squeezed another round out of it, but it probably wouldn’t have been worth it.

Byron naturally accepted approach in front of 2610, where the Gorns are setting up a MB. Two ‘6’s from the Alliance in a row kept me from getting at the base, and I didn’t have what it took to go four rounds and have any sort of fleet left, so that job was left undone. Maybe I can get there again, but it’s getting more and more unlikely….

The Federation rolled much better than the Romulans over 3415, but ran out all their fighters in the first round, and then gave up the NZ planet. But they gave better than they got, and overran a two-ship garrison next door on the way out.

I had just about given up all hope of killing the 3rd Fleet SB, and as the Federation offensive starts reaching into Klingon space, its presence was something I really couldn’t afford. So killing it is a big win for me, and I got it for relatively cheap. It did leave me a bit out of position, and the cost of taking it out may still turn out to be excessive. But in the long run putting much of the south-center out of reach will pay off. I just have to survive the short term while reorganizing.

Meanwhile, the Romulans have finished off the Gorn border BATS, and hampered their reach that way. Federation pressure is mounting, but the Romulans can… mostly put up a stubborn defense. The Federation has a lot of strength near the rim of the galaxy now, and I expect a fair amount of havoc near Tholian space. This means I’m probably not reestablishing contact between the Klingons and Romulans, and the KR spare parts are winding down….

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Jul31

Konya wa Hurricane Alliance Turn 16

by Rindis on July 31, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

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….

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Jul11

Konya wa Hurricane Coalition Turn 16

by Rindis on July 11, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

This took me a while to get started on. The Klingons have been pounded, and I wasn’t seeing anything useful they could do. Of course, this is the turn where 75% exhaustion kicks in, but I almost consider that the least of my worries, though with all the backlogged repairs finally hitting the system, money got tight real fast. Gross income was 417, down just 0.9 from last turn, though the Klingons had a ~6-point drop that was being made up by the other two. However, after exhaustion, this was a mere 312.75 EP. The Alliance’s recent income is ~360, so this has taken me from solidly ahead to solidly behind in real money.

Builds:
Klingon: 3xD7, D5W, 6xD5, AD5, F6, 3xF5, F5E, F5J
Romulan: NH, VHK, SP, SPC, 2xSPM, SK, 2xSKE, SEH, FAL, SNB, WE->KE, BH->BHF
Lyran: STL, CA, NCA, CW, CSV, CWE, 2xDW, DWE, 3xFF, CL->BC

Repairs were at an all-time high of 121.5 EP, nearly half of that being from the Klingons, who consequently had a very tight budget; but it doesn’t do a lot of good to build new ships if I can’t use the ones I’ve got.

For the first time the Klingons did not build any new fighter capacity this turn. I expect there won’t be any new carriers for a bit, but I should be converting the last D6V up to D6U next turn, and I hope to convert a D7V to D7U at some point soon; they’re expensive, but with how Byron’s been beating me up in the EW war, a scout carrier seems like a very handy item to have. Hopefully, I’ll get to see the Lyran CSV in action soon (also my first heavy fighters, something I’m sure we’ll see a bit more of).

This is the turn where the raid pools expand, but I didn’t want to pull a bunch of ships off the line to go raiding, so the only addition was the Romulan SHR, which I had retrograded into the capital last time specifically to be come the third Romulan raider. The Klingons and Lyrans each sent a raid into Kzinti space, disrupting a provinces now out of easy reach. There were five raids in Federation space, which disrupted three provinces, with one failure crippling a D5, while the last was a successful attempt to kill a Federation Tug (though a Prime Team was wounded in the process). The Romulans tried a similar raid on a Federation LTT on a supply mission just inside the Gorn border, but a DNL reacted to chase the SHR away, and the final Romulan raid in Gorn space also failed.

While the main Federation front was a series of problems with no solution, there was still room to maneuver elsewhere. The Gorn SB in 4206 was relatively lightly defended, and there were no reserves in range of it. First though, the Romulans worked on a plan for another offensive in Federation space, which led to a constant stream of move and counter-move as I tried to pin the 3rd Reserve in 3212, and elements of the 5th Fleet reacted in to keep some of it mobile.

Meanwhile, the Lyrans finally attacked 0416, a project that I’d been meaning to get to since Turn 11. With a large chunk of the Hydran fleet now on the capital, it wouldn’t be as punishing, and I had hoped it would draw some Hydran forces away from the capital, but nothing moved. They also pressed forward in Kzinti space, to help the Klingons regain their border from them. The Klingon North Fleet stayed inactive to block any access of the Kzinti reserves to planet 1407 (where the guard FF was assaulted by two ships), while larger forces challenged 1202 and 1506. A bunch of small fights developed in Federation space as I tried to clean things up a bit, and finally, I made an attempt on planet 2509, though there were enough non-reserve forces nearby to shut down some of my moves. The Romulans also sent their large West Fleet to 3509 again, which had had its last defenses knocked out last turn.


The Lyran’s turn in Hydran space.


Back into Kzinti space.


Activity, but not a lot else.


An important gap.

Naturally, the two Hydran reserves (four ships total) went to the only fight in Hydran space, while the Kzinti reserves went to 1202, though the DNLs that had been leading them stayed behind in the capital. The Gorn and Federation reserves on 2610 both went to the planet in 2509 (though he thought of sending the Gorns to 2011 to kill my crippled D6M in that combat). The Federation 2nd Reserve went to smash a small battle in 2207, and the rest were already pinned.

Battles:
4008: SSC: Gorn: dest POL
1611: SSC: Federation: crip FF; mutual retreat off of captured planet
1407: SSC: Kzinti: dest FF; Klingons recapture planet
1506: Kzinti: dest FF; Klingon capture planet
2207: Klingon: dest E4
2110: SSC: Klingon retreat
2011: SSC: Federation retreat
2609: SSC: Gorn: crip LTT
3213: SSC: Federation: dest NCL; Romulan: crip SKF
4208: Gorn: dest BATS; Romulan: crip SK, K5S
3212: Federation: dest ECL, crip FF, FFE; Romulan: crip SP, SK
3509: Federation: dest CA, crip 2xNCL, FF, FFE; Romulan: dest FHF
4206: Gorn: dest SB, DN, HDS, 2xBD, 2xDD, 2xDDG, crip 2xBC, TG, 3xHD, 5xBD, 5xDD, SC, K5 captured and expended for combat bonus; Romulan: dest SUP, SKE, 4xSEH, 2xKR, KRM, K5L, K5, K4, 4xWE, FAL, 2xSN, SNB, crip CON, FH, R-CLE, 9xSP, 2xSPF, KR, K5, 4xKE, 2xWE, CE, 2xBHE, BHF
2509: Federation: crip 2xNCL; Klingon: dest MD5
2510: Federation: dest NCL; Klingon: dest D6D
0416: Hydran: dest 2xPDU, DWE; Lyran: dest CW, 2xDW, crip DN
1202: Retreat after denied approach

My offensive towards 2509 included an over-ambitious strike by two D6s at a Gorn LTT+TPOD by itself in 2609. Byron simply reacted a CM into the hex for a slightly better force with a size advantage. But the rolls were 12 to 3, for the D6s to cripple the LTT for no damage, though they then retreated to 2510 to keep from being alone and cut off. The captain in charge of the strike will be promoted to squadron command in a D7C.

The battle for the SB went longer and bloodier than I had hoped (as ever). The Gorn fleet had a natural firepower superiority the entire way, and started with a large EW advantage that I kept to a -1 shift by killing the HDS. The Romulan fleet on the Gorn border is light on carriers, which aided the carnage, and die rolling was relatively even, though I had a 6-2 split late in the battle that certainly helped. It took six rounds to wear out the Gorn fleet and get him to take 6 voluntary SIDS. I then directed the last two SIDS and the crippled base over the next three. Thankfully, he got a minimal roll in pursuit so he couldn’t do more than kill the two big maulers. The Romulans will be very thin until the repairs get processed, and still thinner than I’d like with all the ship losses. But the Gorn fleet there is smashed (9 uncrippled ships, including 2xSAS), and the one on the other SB doesn’t have a lot of things it can immediately do.

Things are still bad, and the fact is, I’m unlikely to ever have another chance at the 3rd Fleet SB, which is way too close to too much. But, even if a bit late, the Romulans have managed another step towards the goal of pushing Gorn bases far away from the original frontier. There’s one border BATS left, and now only two of the backup bases remain.

No doubt, there will be increased pressure on the Romulans after this. But that hopefully means less Gorn involvement in the Fed-Klingon theater.

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Jun09

Konya wa Hurricane Alliance Turn 15

by Rindis on June 9, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

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.

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May04

Konya wa Hurricane Coalition Turn 15

by Rindis on May 4, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

With the collapse of the Kzinti front, I had a lot of problems to address….

Coalition income was at its lowest ebb since the scenario began, with most of the loss coming from the Klingons, who also had poor survey rolls for the third turn in a row.

Builds:
Klingon: D7C, D7V, D6M, D5W, 7xD5, AD5, 3xF5W, 4xF5, 2xF5E, E4R, C8->C9A, D6->D6D, CL-K-CL, FFE->K-FFE
Romulan: CNV, FHF, SPC, 3xSPM, 2xSK, SKE, SEH, WE, SNB, WE->KE, BH->BHF
Lyran: BC, STT, NCA, 2xCW, CWE, DW, 2xDWE, 2xFF, FCR, FRD, FTM, CV->CVD, 2xFF->DW, BS(F)->BTS(F)

Repairs also hit an all-time high, though I managed to miss a couple Lyran DWs waiting on BATS for repairs. The Klingons alone spent 48 EP on repairs, and still had some backlog. The Lyrans are still struggling to get their repair cycle going. Since I was repairing a C8 anyway, and had a spare SFG kit, I converted it to a C9A, who will presumably only use the SFGs in relatively low-density battles. The Klingons also converted two captured Federation ships to their service to help with ship count (especially since one was already a light escort, so I could build fewer of those), while the Lyrans converted their one CV up to a CVD.

The Lyran raids hit a HN blocking supply in Hydran space, and crippled it, and Kzinti POL, which drew a DN(!) in reaction (I didn’t think he’d burn the reaction on it), which crippled the Lyran DNL. The Klingons hit a Fedeation POL & crippled FF, which escaped, another POL, which died while crippling a D5W, and raided a province near the capital. The Romulans went after two Federation, and one Gorn province, only one of which worked (two cloaked evasion rolls failed, and the Roms accepted a battle against Gorn BATS fighters, but the fighters survived while forcing the FFH to retreat).

The big goal for the turn was one I’d looked at two turns previous, but had to reject. The 3rd Fleet SB is in range of the major planet I hold in 2306, but with that area semi-permanently out of supply, the forces there can’t make it back. But this time, the partial grid was able to spend 7 stored EPs to supply 35 ships to move down, and move against the forward reserve in 2509. I needed to be able to hit the other reserves in the area, but just couldn’t find a way to do it that wouldn’t divert too much away from the SB.

Meanwhile the Romulans mostly pressed on Federation space, sending large forces to 3210 and 3509 (I hoped that the former would draw a reserve to help the Klingons… but no), as well as taking on another Gorn BATS behind the east border. I decided to leave the small Federation force on 1611 alone, hoping to cut them off by putting a small force on 1910. The major forces still in Kzinti space hit 1504, while another force hit 1407 to pin it down. The Klingons moved in on the Hydran capital again, though the Hydrans were able to react reinforcements in, and still keep enough on 0416 to keep the Lyrans from trying it.


Stepping carefully around the Hydrans.


Limited goals against the Kzinti.


Taking on the 3rd Fleet.


Renewing the Romulan drive into Federation space.

The Gorn Reserve on the Federation capital went to 2509 to free up a few ships in the reserve there, which then went to take 1910. The other two Federation reserves in the area went to the 3rd Fleet SB, while the 4th moved out of Gorn space to help 3509, and the Gorn reserve went to pound a SNB vs POL battle. The two (two-ship) Kzinti reserves went to help 1407.

Battles:
1805: SSC: Kzinti: dest FF; Klingon: crip F5
1806: SSC: Federation: dest cripFF
1808: SSC: Federation: dest FF; Lyran: crip JGP-C
1910: Federation capture planet; Klingon: dest F5
0519: SSC: Hydran retreat
0515: SSC: Hydran: dest cripHN
0212: SSC: Hydran: dest HN
3808: Romulan: dest SNB
5006: Gorn: dest BATS; Romulan: crip K5
3314: Federation: dest FF; Romulan: crip SNB
3313: SSC: Nothing
3210: Federation: dest NCL, crip NCL, FF; Romulan: crip KRM, SK, capture planet
3209: SSC: Federation retreat
3509: Federation: dest FFE, 2xPDU, MON, SWAC, crip 3xNCL, 3xFF, planet devastated; Romulan: dest SP, SPF, SE; crip: 2xKE, 4xSP, SPF, SK, SKG, K5, BHE
2509: Gorn: dest CCH; Klingon: crip 2xD5, 3xF5
2408: SSC: Federation: dest POL; Klingon retreat
2407: SSC: Both retreat
2211: Federation: 2xSIDS, dest BT, DE, 3xFF, FFE, 2xSWAC, crip 8xNCL, DD, 4xFF; Klingon: dest SAF, D6J, D6S, AD5, F5L, F5, crip B10, D7C, 2xD7, D6M, 6xD5, AD5, F5L, 2xF5E, F5S; Lyran: dest STT, 2xDW, crip STJ
2210: SSC: Federation: dest POL
2108: Federation: dest FFS, crip DN+; Klingon: dest cripF5, E4, crip AD5, D5S, F5S
2007: SSC: Federation: dest cripFF, POL
1407: Kzinti: dest cripBC, crip CC; Klingon: crip D7, D5
1504: Kzinti: dest EFF, crip MC, 2xMEC; Klingon: dest D6D, crip F5, capture planet
0617: Hydran: dest DG, DWE, CU, crip CU; Klingon: dest D7, LTG, E4A, crip 2xD6, capital captured

The Federation left a tug near the Romulan border, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. After a CL reacted in, it was just above SSC level, but the Feds lost a FF, and then did a Fighting Retreat over 3313, where low rolls kept anything from happening there.

The Federation went a round over 3210, in an unequal fight that still cost the Romulans a shocked KRM, while the fight for 3509 went four rounds, with two of those with a bad split on rolls, and one with a blown offensive cloak attempt. The Romulans chewed through ~60 fighters, and took a lot of cripples, and suffered more mauler shock. The good news is that the fixed defenses are gone (on the second attempt here), which makes the planet more vulnerable in the future.

We both knew the 3rd Fleet SB fight was going to be nasty going in. I had a decided advantage in number of ships, but the Federation could out-ComPot me even without the SB, mostly due to being willing to put up plenty of CAs, and three battle tugs (one of which I mauled). Despite using a CP against nothing for the Feds, I was taking a lot of damage, and 100+ fighters lessened the pain, but still melted away too fast. I made some errors, such as assuming he wouldn’t direct to cripple the B10 when it was up unprotected (and there were rounds when he might have killed it), so it wasn’t available on the round when the SAF went in. I figured to max out minus points, sacrifice the D6J, and send in the SAF while the B10 froze a few ships for cheap mauling. Well, that didn’t happen, the disrupted SAF did no damage, and my troop assaults (which I should have started earlier), didn’t get anywhere, despite there being no backup troops in the hex for him, and the maulers generally shocked on the first roll. I might have been able to force the assault, but I’d have nothing left at the end of it.

The battle for the Hydran capital went three rounds. I was willing to kill as many Hydran ships as I could even if it wore out the West Fleet, but generally couldn’t do the damage for the cruisers. I was a bit surprised when the Hydrans retreated with a number of spare fighters left. I guess they figured there’ll be another day to keep me busy, and Coalition forces aren’t likely to get much stronger.

The failure at the 3rd Fleet SB puts the Coalition in an even bigger hole than it already was. The large concentration in NW Federation space that I was bleeding with also made sure that the 4th Fleet was stuck near it’s SB. Now that’s largely evaporated, and no doubt I will lose that foothold completely. Finally knocking out the 3rd Fleet SB would have been worth it, and opened other opportunities. Now I have the worst of both worlds, as I can be sure that the SB will be much better protected next turn; the 3rd Fleet had been bleeding ships, as I wanted before doing this push. But I just couldn’t keep the reserves out/away, and the only positive results are that the Romulans are in range of Earth, and they finished stripping the defenses off a major planet in front of their advance (if they could afford to advance…).

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Mar25

Konya wa Hurricane Alliance Turn 14

by Rindis on March 25, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

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.

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Feb25

Konya wa Hurricane Coalition Turn 14

by Rindis on February 25, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

The Lyrans and Romulans finally had good survey rolls this turn, though Klingon survey efforts are still stalled, which generated one extra province for the Lyrans, who were still down for the turn with loss of income from their southern space, and continued problems in Kzinti space. Overall, the Coalition economy was up by 7.2 EP, but that includes 4 EP that were trapped in the Klingon partial grid in NW Federation space.

Builds:
Klingon: C8V, D6M, TGA, D5W, 2xD5, 5xAD5, MD5, 2xF5W, 4xF5, 2xF5E, F5J, E4R, FRD, FTM, PDU, D6->D6D
Romulan: SUB, FHF, SP, 3xSPM, SK, 2xSKE, SEH, WE, SNB, FSD, CL->R-CLE, WB->KE, BH->BHF
Lyran: DN, TGC, NCA, STJ, CVP, CWE, DW, 2xDWE, 2xFF, FCR, FRD, FTM, PDU

The Klingons have three captured Federation ships now, and scrapped the smallest (a FF) to make their slipping budget work, but are still hoping to convert over a CL and FFE. The Romulans eagerly converted over a captured Gorn CL to CLE as they’ve had no heavy escorts until now, and the CLE is actually more effective than the new SPM. They also activated a Fighter Supply Depot on the Fleet of the North SB, as there will probably be fighting in range of it for some time.

The Lyrans’ raids both targeted Federation provinces, disrupting both. The Klingons were down to one ship in the raid pool, the C5, which attempted to open up supply, but Byron just reacted a second ship into the hex, leaving it to pick on a FF, which retreated on a bad roll, while a new D5W was added to the raid pool, which picked off a patrolling POL. The Romulans sent the FFH to pick off a defending FF on 3210, and drove it off, while the two SPs evaded detection to disrupt a Federation and a Gorn province.

With forces still stuck on 2306 with no movement supply, making a second try at the 4th Fleet SB was a certain item for me. At the same time, it’s been four turns since the opening raid on the Kzinti capital, so it was time to go in and re-devastate everything. I had actually hoped to do that last turn, but there were other problems to take care of; but this time those would have to wait. The good news was that parts of the Kzinti fleet were still deployed outside the capital, so I could be sure the Kzinti reserves would stay there for defense, and not interfere with a small force re-taking 1202. Other Lyran activity was largely restricted to sending cripples home, and reshuffling after the fall of the Enemy’s Blood SB.

The Klingons re-occupied 2610, and considered sending Invulnerable to 2509, but sent it to help out at 4th Fleet instead, which will probably trap it in that region for the next few turns, though the move did get it to a spare admiral. The Romulans tried getting fancy and occupied 3210 with a SEH, while moving the out-of-supply IV Legion past it. They also struck at the SE Gorn SB with what was available, but that didn’t actually include any CR 10 ships (oops, I hadn’t noticed), while sending a very large force after the DNT at the SW corner of Gorn space, and picking off another border BATS.


Back to Kzintai.


Back to the 4th Fleet SB.


Back into supply.


And back across the Gorn border.

I hadn’t been at all sure where the Federation reserves would go. One went to help the 4th Fleet, while another went to help the largely pinning battle on 2106, dropping NCLs on a couple Klingon ships in the way who were making sure supply would stay open. He sent one after planet 3210, instead of the main force nearby, and the last went to help the main Gorn fleet in 4008. The Gorns sent reserves after a small pinning battle in Federation space (admittedly the only thing in range), and their SB (which was necessary; while the Romulan force had problems, it could handle the defending fleet by itself).

Battles:
3209: Romulan: dest WE
3210: Romulan: dest SEH
1202: SSC: Kzinti: crip FF; Lyrans capture planet
0414: SSC: Hydran retreat
2610: Federation: dest 2xcripFF; Klingons capture planet
4608: Gorn: dest BATS; Romulan: crip WE
3311: Federation: dest POL
2204: Federation: 2xSIDS, dest FFE, crip 2xNCL, 5xFF; Klingons: dest D7, D6S, F5L, 2xF5 crip D7C, 2xD5, F5
2307: SSC: Federation retreats; Klingon: dest F5
2107: SSC: Federation: dest FF
2006: SSC: Federation: dest cripFF
2007: Federation: dest POL
2106: Federation: dest CA, crip NCL, 4xFF; Klingon: dest D5 Lyran: dest STT
2005: Federation: dest cripFF
2206: SSC: Federation retreats; Klingon: dest E4
1401: Kzinti: Kuballus: 2xPDU, 2xSIDS, devastated; Keevarsh: devastated; Zabbottish: devastated; Vielsalm: devastated; Zaforma: devastated; Strikus: devastated; Vronkett: devastated; dest LAD, crip CC, CLD, DD, 3xFFK, FH; Lyran: dest STJ, 3xDW, 2xFF, FFE, crip BC, 3xCW, CWE, CWG; Klingon: dest D6, D5, AD5, F5L, crip 2xD7, D5, F5
4806: Gorn: dest BD, BDS; Romulan: dest SP, SNB, SN, crip KE, SP
4008: Gorn: dest BATS; Romulan: dest SPG, crip KE, SP

Trying to get fancy while pulling the IV Legion out cost me an extra ship, and a bigger one than I should have lost. Meanwhile, continued poor rolls in SSC kept the Lyrans from getting an easy kill of a FF in 1202, while a ‘7’ allowed a small Hydran force to retreat out of 0414 after sacrificing its fighters.

The 4th Fleet SB battle only went two rounds, with the natural superiority in Federation firepower and EW, and worse, the Federation rolled much better both times. I stayed on target and damaged the SB, but it will be a long time before this gets anywhere at this rate. I was worried that I’d be out of supply after combat in the area, but the F5 in 2307 came through to force an NCL to retreat, even though an even higher roll destroyed it in the process (10 vs 11), which guaranteed supply would get to 2304 even if the Federation controlled every other contested hex. (Later, an E4 outdid him (11) to force that same NCL and a second one to retreat. Byron might want to cashier that captain.)

Byron had what it took to win in 2005, and then the reserve dropped a bunch of extra NCL and FFs on the fight to make sure of it. For the first time this game, the Klingons had an ‘ideal Kzinti line’, with three carrier groups and a D5 in form, which he directed on, rather than see me take 35 points on 24 fighters and crippling an escort or two. (Even with the Fed high-quality fighters, 24 fighter factors (thanks to an oversized D6U squadron) should be a record that will stand until the Alliance puts up Fed fighters and a CVD.)

The Lyrans put up two lines in the capital, and the Klingons put up one, as I worked my way through the outer systems and tackled the minor in the home system. Since the Lyrans are increasingly homeless in Kzinti space, but their SAF survived slow pursuit from 1202, I sent it in here to hit the BATS over Kuballus, and rolled well after being disrupted to do two SIDS, but the G attack on it failed (he backed up the PDUs), and he backed it up on the second round when I caused a loss while mauling the planet to devastate it. It would be tempting to go back and finish the job next turn, but I’ll probably have bigger emergencies to handle.

Other than the Gorn SB, I hit my main goals for the turn, though I had meant to reclaim NZ planet 1910 again with a couple of ships, and it slipped my mind completely during movement. The raid on the Kzinti capital cost me a bit more than I had hoped, but it needed doing, as the Kzinti economy was set to go up 15 EP otherwise. A big problem has been the breakdown of the repair cycle, and no matter what, I should be getting some important ships back into service next turn, and the Romulans got through their backlog this turn. Now to see if I can keep from losing too much this coming turn….

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