3/4/2018 - Narn Vs. Centauri

FLEETS

Narn Fleet - Pete and Tristan

23RD CRUISER SQUADRON (REINFORCED)
G'Quan Enduring Wisdom of G'Quan - 625/625
G'Quan Righteous Fury of G'Quan - 625/1250
G'Quan Thunderous Voice of G'Quan - 625/1875
G'Lan Subtle Teachings of G'Quan (Flagship) - 820/2695 

G'Karith Towering Shield of G'Quan - 500/3195
G'Karith Shimmering Dagger of G'Quan - 500/3695
Dag'Kar Unerring Atlotl of G'Quan - 750/4445

14TH DESTROYER DIVISION
Ka'Toc Confidence in Victory - 575/5020
Ka'Toc Rightness of Cause - 575/5595
Rongoth Ferocity in Battle - 485/6080

VF-103
Flight 1 - 240/6320
Flight 2 - 240/6560

VF-115
Flight 1 - 240/6800
Flight 2 - 240/7040

VF-115
Flight 1 - 240/7280
Flight 2 - 240/7520

VF-120
Flight 1 - 240/7760
Flight 2 - 240/8000

Centauri Fleet - Peter and Bri

CENTAURI HEAVY FLEET
Demos ERW Arbiter - 575/575
Demos ERW Bulwark - 575/1150
Demos ERW Scimitar - 575/1725
Demos ERW Vanguard - 575/2300
Demos ERW Triumph - 575/2875

CENTAURI INTERDICTION ARMADA
Primus ERW Ardent - 830/3705
Primus ERW Conqueror - 830/4535
Primus ERW Warspite - 830/5365

Sentri 22nd Imperial Fighter Squadron - "Lancers"

Flight 1 - 252/5617
Flight 2 - 252/5869

Sentri 8th Imperial Fighter Squadron - "Headhunters"
Flight 1 - 252/6121
Flight 2 - 252/6373

Sentri 17th Imperial Fighter Squadron - "Avengers"
Flight 1 - 252/6625
Flight 2 - 252/6877

Rutar. 14th Special Operations Squadron -"Night Wings"
Flight 1 - 450/7327
Flight 2 - 450/7777

IN ADDITION, one of these vessels is a suspected disguise for:
Dargan ERW Victory (Flagship) 750

DEPLOYMENT

The Fleets deployed on opposite ends of the field. The Narn Fleet gathered together and bunched up tight in the South-Western corner of the map, where as the Centauri Fleet deployed a bit more spread out. TheHCVs of the Centauri Heavy Fleet deployed in the Northeast, the Capital Ships Centauri Interdiction Armada deployed in the Southeast, and the whole fleet's assembly of fighters deployed in a cluster midway between the two.

Complete Map, with Narn Photobomb

Narn Fleet Setup

Centauri Heavy Fleet Setup

Centauri Interdiction Armada Setup

Centauri Fighter Setup

TURN 1 - Unpleasant Portents

The Narn Fleet starts off slow moving, with most of their ships moving at speed 2 and the Dag'Kar at speed 0. The initiative penalty means that the Narn Fleet, for the most part, moves before the Centauri, giving the soldiers of the Emperor better reaction speeds as they have all entered the field at full cruising speed (5). However, before movement the Narn open fire with their ballistic weapons - Each of the G'Quans deploy energy mines, and the Dag'Kar opens up on the ERW Ardent with a trio of Ion Torpedoes. The Centauri recognize that their enemies are going for sustained half volleys rather than alternating full volleys, and know that there will be no respite from Narn Ballistic fire until they get close enough to the fleet and/or take out that Dag'Kar.

The Narn Fleet, with the exception of the Dag'Kar, advance by 2 and holds formation. The Centauri Fleet is much more bold. The Primus all accelerate to a speed of 6 and the Heavy Fleet all accelerate to a speed of 8. The Centauri fighters scramble around the board, flying off in all directions to separate themselves while moving towards the Narn is quickly as possible. Meanwhile the Centauri HVCs and Capitals all use slide maneuvers to keep their exact position unpredictable.

Once all ships have moved, the ballistic weapons hit... and they hit rough. While the Ion Torpedoes did negligible damage to the Ardent, but the Interdiction Armada's Sentris flew right into the Narn's minefield. The damage is catastrophic to the Sentris, with three flights hit - though thankfully not directly. Even so, the damage has been significant enough to gravely weaken the Centauri's interceptors.

The Map after Turn 1

The Centauri Interdiction Armada watches its fighters dropping out after Energy Mine fire

The Heavy Fleet contemplates the long journey ahead to reach the Narn ships

The Narn Fleet mocking the Centauri with their brazen undamaged-ness

Beyond that, the ships do not fire on one another... though the slaughter is just starting.

TURN 2 - Blinded by Laser Fire

The Narn Fleet seems content to continue its slow advance, as it's been working out well for them thus far. They continue the previously established theme of 6 mines and 3 torps this time all of the fire coming from the Dag'Kar and its superior firing arcs. Further, the Iron Torpedos this time target the ERW Triumph, noting that it moved surprisingly slowly for a Demos and figuring that it may be the ERW Victory concealing its identity with its Chameleon Sensors. The Centauri, recognizing how bad things are starting to look for them, accelerate harder - the Heavy Fleet moving to speed 11 as they desperately make their way to close with the Narn, while the Interdiction Armada moves to speeds ranging from 7-8. The Centauri want to start doing some damage, so they prepare to bring their battle lasers to bear...

... Only to find that the Narn are aiming their Heavy Lasers right back. The Primus' have all poured all of their EW into target locks, and have no way to defend themselves from the coming onslaught. But before those lasers can fire, ballistic fire resolves - and once again the Sentris find themselves in the last place they wanted to be. As Ion Torps crash into the face of the Triumph, seeming to blast off a Heavy Array, two more Sentri flights find themselves on the edges of Energy Mine fire. The results were...

... Let's go with "not what the Centauri wanted"

The Sentris have taken a massive beating after two turns of Energy Mine fire. One flight destroyed outright after taking two, and three at half strength or worse due to dropouts. Only two flights remain at full strength. With a paltry 17 Sentris remaining after entering with 36, those 48 Goriths hanging in the maw of the Narn Fleet are looking a lot more imposing.

But there's no time to think of that. The G'Quans pour their Heavy Lasers into the ERW Ardent! The two Ka'Tocs fire a Heavy Laser each at the ERW Conqueror! And the Primus are each firing 2 Battle Lasers at the Confidence in Victory!

The Ardent loses its front half quickly before the 6 Heavy Laser Cannons, and the Narn death rays start eating up primary systems with astounding ease. The vessel only manages to survive thanks to very lucky poor aim from the Narn, who focused so much fire on the Hangar Bay that the Ardent manages to survive with a mere 3 blocks of Primary Structure remaining. It's reactor suffers a -8 power failure after only 2 damage, its sensors take a -2 penalty (2 being the number of structure blocks IT has left), and the engines miraculously avoid a critical despite the amount of damage it took. Only the C&C remains untouched.

But the firing isn't over. The Ka'Tocs both hit with their Heavy Lasers, landing brutal strikes into the Starboard side of the Conqueror. Twin Arrays are lost, as is one of the Battle Lasers, along with a solid half of the Starboard structure block. Unfortunately for the Confidence in Victory - that Battle Laser still gets to fire.

Six Battle Lasers slam into the Confidence in Victory, and the Centauri seem devoted to ripping it out of the sky. The first five hits shred its guns, and the last hit manages to finish off its forward structure... but one brave - potentially psychotic - Narn Gunner, takes his chance at immortality. As the front half of his ship collapses, despite the long range... he fires the Mag Gun at the Conqueror. The range penalties reduce the hit chance to less than a third... but the gun is about to die anyway. So he takes the long shot...

... And rolls a 6.

The starboard side of the ERW Conqueror EXPLODES, blasting through its remaining systems and structure before pouring it's remaining damage into Primary Structure. The Confidence in Victory may be all but crippled... but it died a NARN.

The Map after turn 2

The Narn fleet, holding formation

The Centauri Interdiction Armada licks its wounds

The Heavy Fleet watches the carnage in abject horror

The Centauri have taken a savage beating with little significant victories. It's beginning to look like the fight is going to turn into a slaughtering victory for the Narn Regime... what can the Centauri do to stem the losses?

TURN 3 - The Heavy Fleet Arrives

The Narn Fleet takes a breath, its longer range weapons mostly spent. Only the Narn flagship, the Subtle Teachings of G'Quan, makes any significant target lock - preparing to blow the tar out of the ERW Triumph, hoping to destroy what they believe to be the flagship of the Centauri fleet...

... And they are disheartened to find that it is the ERW BULWARK that declares ELINT function! Each of the Demos devote full target locks on the SUBTLE TEACHINGS OF G'QUAN, which finds itself floating with no offensive EW to speak for. The image of the Demos known as the ERW Bulwark shimmers away, revealing the imposing frame of the ERW Victory. The Victory itself puts a 6 point target lock on the Subtle Teachings of G'Quan, and 1 point of ELINT to each of the Demos... giving the Demos an effecting 12 point lock, with the Victory aiming its own battle lasers and matter cannons at the Narn Flagship.

This ELINT has fangs.

In addition to the Narn's deployed Mines and Ion Torpedoes, the Heavy Fleet explodes into ballistic fire - each Demos firing 4 Ballistic Torpedoes at the G'Lan, and blind firing one each at the Rightness of Cause, hoping to knock its Mag Cannon off its nose before it has a chance to fire. The Narn fleet begins to regret its choice to stay slow, because the initiative penalties mean that their ships do not have a chance to get out of harm's way. The Goriths scramble, flocking to the damaged ERW Triumph to try to chew it out of the sky. A single flight moves to engage one of the flights of Rutarian stealth fighters coming in from the flank. The Centauri fighters mobilize, hoping to reduce the damage with some lucky dogfighting. Meanwhile, the Interdiction Armada moves to bring its remaining Battle Lasers to bear on the Dag'Kar.

Ballistic weapons land - Ion Torpedoes deal nominal damage to their target. The Energy Mines are a little more interesting - the Goriths dogpiling on the Triumph had forgotten that there was an Energy Mine in the adjacent hex! If it detonates on target, the Narn could lose almost all of their fighters in one fell swoop...!

... But it misfires.

It is the Ballistic Torpedoes that are the most significant weapons. Two of them crash into the Rightness of Cause, but miss the Mag Gun... however, 15 of the 16 fired torpedoes find their home on the Subtle Teachings of G'Quan! Before the Narn Flagship can even fire a shot (save the defensive fire that managed to shoot down the 16th torpedo), the flood of ballistic torpedoes rips off the front half of the ship.

Weapons fire... and the Narn have almost nothing to shoot with. Most of the shots they can take are at too high a penalty to hit. They are able to bring enough fire to bear against the beleaguered ERW Ardent to finish it off, but do nothing beyond that act of defiance. The Centauri fire with impunity.

The Interdiction Armada avenges its Sentris by ripping into the Dag'Kar... and though they manage to destroy every ion torpedo launcher and four of the six Energy Mines, the vessel hangs on with a mere 5 blocks of structure.

The Subtle Teachings of G'Quan is less fortunate - All of the available Heavy Array shots strike true, and the Narn flagship falls apart before the Heavy Fleet even fires any of its heavier weapons. With the Plasma Accelerators, Battle Lasers and Matter Cannons still primed, the fleet looks staged to continue its onslaught...

Fortunately for the Narn, they brought Goriths. Lots and lots of Goriths.

The Centauri fighters aren't able to do enough to hinder the Narn swarm, nor can the pithy twin array fire from the nearby Dargan. The Goriths chew through the ERW Triumph, eating its front half and rendering it effectively dead. All of its weapons gone, the Triumph can only float forward into eternity. The other flight of Goriths hits full on the Rutarians, killing two and forcing a third to drop out - and even manages to escape the Sentris with little casualties.

The Map after turn 3

The Narn Fleet

"Um." - Captain of the ERW Triumph

"LEROOOOOOY...!"

Turn Three was a great turning point for the Centauri, but they are running very low on options with which to fight the Goriths - The Narn may have lost their flagship, and their Dag'Kar may be severely damaged, but they aren't out of the fight. This is still anyone's battle.

TURN 4 - Stalemate is Victory

Despite the setup from the previous two turns, this final move was essentially bloodless. The Narn Fleet didn't do much to diverge from its previously established flight plan, and the Centauri didn't press the attack. Instead, the Centauri big ships reduced speed and moved to cluster together so as to give the Heavy Fleet the advantage of the Primus' Twin Arrays to better fight off the Goriths. The Rutarians moved to harass the Narn Fleet while the Goriths moved to devour the ERW Arbiter. The only alteration was the ERW Triumph... who accelerated and rocketed through the Narn Fleet, cutting through them to make good its escape as it could no longer have any impact on the battle.

The Dag'Kar fired ballistic weapons - it's two remaining energy mines. That can't be too scary, right?

... Well, unless the unharmed flight of Rutarians ends in the same hex as one of them and vaporizes utterly. Rare that you get a single shot that costs the enemy team 450 points, isn't it?

In the meantime, each of the armed Demos fired two Ballistic Torpedoes at the Rightness of Cause before peeling away. Only half of them managed to hit, and the damage was shockingly minimal - it's only effect was to blow off the ship's retro-thrusters, keeping it from being able to effectively slow down. Hopefully the ship won't be able to maneuver it's mag gun into firing position for a good long while.

There was little to no weapons fire of significance from any of the non-fighters. The Rightness of Cause had made a full lock on the ERW Victory, hoping to blow it away, but the Dargan had the initiative and moved deftly out of arc to negate its ability to fire - and what few remaining weapons that had arc after movement were at too long a range to hit.

The Primus' and the Dargan popped a few Goriths, but it wasn't near enough to stem the tide. One flight was destroyed, but only after drop outs. The whole of them descended upon the ERW Arbiter and proceeded to devour its aft side before digging into the primary systems. The ship survived, however, with all of its weapons intact.

Meanwhile, a divergent flight of Sentris - at this point the only flight that remained at full strength - moved to finish off the Dag'Kar. While it was a very narrow margin, the fighters succeeded in their mission, blasting the despised Unerring Atlotl of G'Quan into slag.

The Map after turn 4

CONCLUSION

The Glorious Dead

Narn Regime

1 G'Lan - 820

1 Dag'Kar - 750

1 Ka'Toc - 575

16 Goriths - 640

TOTAL LOSSES - 2,785

Centauri Republic

1 Demos - 575

1 Primus - 830

9 Rutarians - 675

25 Sentris - 1,050

TOTAL LOSSES - 3,130

In the end, with no more time to continue the fight, it was deemed that this would end in a very narrow conclusion. On the next turn the Centauri would bring a great deal of firepower to bear on the Narn Fleet - the three Demos and the Dargan all maintained their full array of heavy weapons and would strike at the Narn, and four Primus Battle Lasers would once again be able to fire. With the Heavy Lasers still a turn away from cooldown, it was likely that the Centauri would take some - but not enough - damage from the Narn smaller weapons while doing heavy damage to their remaining big guns. Even so, while the Centauri could likely destroy the rest of the Narn heavy ships, the Goriths would be the deciding factor. The Goriths would likely be able to rip through what remained of the Centauri fleet with relative impunity, and would be able to declare victory even at the cost of most of their ships. Even if the Narn walked away with less than a thousand points remaining... it would still be more than the Centauri had by the end of the day. The Centauri simply suffered too many losses to their fighters in the first two turns of the game to Narn Energy Mines, and their lack of interception ability was enough for the Regime to come out ahead in the end.

WINNER - NARN REGIME!