Tag Archives: New Pale

Second Battle of New Pale (Truane’s Star) – FY61.354

In a short, high-speed battle around New Pale today, the invading sathar forces were destroyed or driven off by the militia and the augmented Strike Force Nova.

The victory was not with out cost, however, as both UPF battleships were destroyed in the fighting, along with one of the UPF fighters. While the sathar losses were much higher, we mourn the loss of the crews of those ships

Goolar Nadd, New Pale News

Background

With the arrival of Task Force Relief (battleship, assault carrier, and 10 fighters) and its merger with Strike Force Nova, the UPF and Truane’s Star militia outgun the invading sathar fleet nearly two to one.  Despite these odds, the sathar continue on to engage the UPF forces although they aim for New Pale instead of Pale to avoid the UPF Fortress at that world. 

Order of Battle

Pale Militia

  • Armed Station
  • 1 Assault Scout
  • 1 Frigate

Strike Force Nova

  • 17 Fighters
  • 3 Assault Scouts
  • 3 Frigates
  • 1 Destroyer
  • 3 Light Cruisers
  • 2 Assault Carriers
  • 2 Battleships

Sathar

  • 8 Fighters
  • 1 Cutter
  • 2 Frigates
  • 2 Destroyers
  • 1 Light Cruiser
  • 1 Assault Carrier
  • 2 Heavy Cruisers

The Battle

Setup

Expecting the sathar to make a run at the station as they have in other systems (and in the battle here over a month ago), the UPF position the battleships on either side of the planet, one supported by a destroyer and the other a light cruiser.  Out from the battleships is a pair of frigates on each side with a pair of assault scouts out and slightly back from the frigates. There are two wings of fighters beyond and a bit back from each pair of assault scouts.  The assault carriers, each escorted by a light cruiser, are far back from the planet.  The capital ships and assault scouts are all moving at speed 15, the assault scouts are at speed 20, and the fighters are at speed 30.  The eight seeker missiles from the two battleships are arrayed in an arc around the planet.

The sathar, recognizing that they are not going to win this fight, are planning a high speed pass hoping to take out the UPF battleships and assault carriers and then escaping the system.  They line up in two groups directly opposite the battleships.  The upper group is comprised of a heavy and light cruiser, a destroyer, and a frigate while the lower group is composed of a heavy cruiser, the assault carrier and cutter, and a destroyer and frigate.  The fighters are divided into two flights of four, one on each wing.  All of the sathar vessels come in much faster than the UPF expected and are moving at speed 35.

Positions of ships and seeker missiles at the beginning of the battle. The two main groups of sathar ships are represented by a single marker with the actual ships displayed at the top and bottom of the map. Click for full size image.

Turn 1

The sathar capital ships accelerate to speed 37 and fly straight at and past the UPF battleships.  The fighters accelerate to speed 40 turning in to fire at the battleships as well.

Defensively the assault scouts and frigates fire their laser batteries at the fighters and the frigates fire their rocket batteries at their sathar counterparts in each group.  The battleship and destroyer in the upper group, along with the station, fire at the sathar destroyer, while the battleship and light cruiser in the lower group fire at the assault carrier.

The defensive fire at the sathar fighters is fairly ineffective, slightly damaging the engines on three fighters and knocking the hull integrity down to 38% on two others. However, none are destroyed and all are able to fire their assault rockets at the battleships.

The sathar frigate in the upper group is hit by a rocket battery knocking out 30% of its hull while the sathar frigate in the lower group is hit by two rocket batteries knocking out its laser battery and slightly damaging its maneuvering.

The destroyer in the upper group is pummeled by the UPF destroyer and battleship being hit with 2 laser batteries, 3 electron batteries, a proton battery, a rocket battery and the cannons from both ships. In the end, it has it defenses knocked off-line, its electron battery and engines knocked out, a hit to its combat controls system, its hull integrity reduced by 68%, and a fire breaks out on-board.

The assault carrier in the lower group doesn’t fare much better. It is hit by 2 laser batteries, an electron battery, 2 proton batteries, a disruptor cannon and a rocket battery. It loses its laser battery and 65% of its hull integrity.

The sathar unload all of their weapons at the battleship they fly over with the battleships firing 3 ICMs at each incoming torpedo.

The Admiral Clinton (upper battleship) is hammered. All 4 assault rockets from the fighters hit knocking out its engines and maneuvering capability and reducing its hull integrity by 22%. The sathar frigate hits it with its laser cannon knocking out the battleship’s disruptor cannon. The sathar destroyer hits with its laser cannon, rocket battery, and a torpedo that slipped through the ICM screen knocking out the battleship’s torpedo and ICM launchers and knocking the hull integrity down another 16%. The sathar light cruiser lands a series of hull hits with its disruptor cannon and electron and rocket batteries reducing the battleships hull by another 28%. Finally, the sathar heavy cruiser hits with its laser, electron, and proton batteries as well as its disruptor cannon knocking out the battleship’s proton screen, damaging its combat control system and reduces its hull integrity by another 28%. In the end, the Admiral Clinton has only 6% of its hull integrity left.

The sathar is the lower group were not as effective firing on the new UPF battleship, the Admiral R’kazk’tar. Only one of the four assault rockets connect knocking out the battleship’s disruptor cannon while the cutter misses completely. The sathar frigate hits with everything but its torpedo knocking out the battleship’s torpedo and ICM launcher and knocking half of its engines off-line. The sathar destroyer hits will everything expect its torpedo inducing an on-board fire and knocking out 35% of the battleship’s hull integrity. The sathar assault carrier scores a minor (<2%) hull hit with its laser battery while the sathar heavy cruiser only hits with it’s laser battery and disruptor cannon cutting the battleship’s maneuvering in half and knocking the hull integrity down another 13%.

Each sathar heavy cruiser deploys a single seeker missile, about 40,000 km behind their final positions where they expect the UPF to end the movement to fire their torpedoes at maximum range.

The maneuvering on this turn was so complicated, that I almost did a sathar movement map and a UPF movement one but in the end I left them on the same map. It’s a bit confusing but so was the maneuvering.

The seriously wounded battleship drifts away from the fight and two frigates join it as escorts.  The other battleship, its MR reduced by half, turns and uses the gravity of New Pale to gain an extra turn.  The other ships also loop around the planet, accelerating as much as possible to come around and bring all their weapons to bear on the various sathar vessels.  The fighters split their fire between the heavy cruiser and frigate in the upper group, and the heavy cruiser and assault carrier in the lower group, assisted by the assault scouts firing on the heavy cruisers as well.  The other ships focus their fire on the smaller more maneuverable ships.  The assault carriers and their escorts accelerate and cross the sathar battle line hoping to get out of the maneuvering arc of the larger ships. They fire what weapons they can at the sathar fighters.  The fire on the sathar destroyer knocks out its laser cannon.

Defensively, the upper flight of sathar ships focus their particle battery weapons at the damaged battleship, hoping to finish it off but they all miss.  They use their laser batteries defensively against the fighters destroying one, nearly destroying another, lightly damaging the engines on a third. They fire their rocket batteries at the light cruiser but they all miss.

In the lower group of sathar ships, all the beam weapons are focused on the fighters but only one hits damaging the fighter’s combat control system while the rocket batteries are fired at the UPF destroyer but they all miss as well.

The upper UPF assault carrier connected with its laser and proton battery destroying one fighter and knocking out the assault rocket launcher on the other. The lower assault carrier hits with it’s proton battery and almost takes out a figher but it manages to hold togheter. The carrier’s light cruiser escort hits the same fighter with its laser battery, damaging the fighter’s engines, and a different fighter with it’s proton battery damaging its maneuverability.

The sathar heavy cruiser in the upper group is hit by 5 assault rockets and a laser battery from the fighters and assault scouts which damage its combat control system, short circuits its defenses, and reduces its hull integrity by 98% nearly destroying it.

The sathar heavy cruiser in the lower group gets away fairly unscathed as it is only hit by 3 assault rockets from the fighters and assault scouts knocking out its ICM launcher and maneuvering and reducing its hull integrity by 16%.

The sathar frigate in the upper group is hit by 2 assault rockets from the fighters as well as an electron batter, disruptor cannon, and torpedo from the light cruiser which knock out its defenses before the torpedo destroyers the ship.

The final fighter flight hits the upper sathar assault carrier with four assault rockets destroying it. while the sathar destroyer is destroyed by its UPF counterpart which hit with its laser and rocket batteries as well as torpedo that got through the ICM screen.

The sathar frigate in the lower group is hit by its UPF counterpart with a laser battery that damages its maneuvering and a torpedo that slips through the ICM screen but only manages to take out the frigate’s laser battery.

Maneuvering and final positions after the first ten minutes of battle. Click for full size image.

Turn 2

With the assault carrier destroyed, the sathar fighters are stranded and so continue the attack on the battleships.  The flight that lost a fighter loops around to go after the heavily wounded battleship (Admiral Clinton) while the other group goes after the less damaged one.  The heavily damaged heavy cruiser just drifts away from the battle while the light cruiser from the upper group turns to make a pass at the less damaged battleship (Admiral R’kazk’tar) as it accelerates away from the battle.  The lower group, minus the destroyed assault carrier, just accelerate straight away from the battle at the heavy cruiser’s max acceleration (it has 0 MR), staying in formation.  They fire on the UPF destroyer as they fly away.  The fire on the Admiral R’kazk’tar induces a navigation control hit.

The sathar also activate the two seeker missiles they deployed the previous round. Unfortunately for the sathar, the UPF did not react as expected and the only ships nearby are the assault scouts. Each seeker missile goes after one of the assault scouts but they both miss.

Defensively, the battleships fire at the incoming fighters as do the assault scouts and the frigates escorting the heavily damaged battleship.  They are assisted by the station and the lower assault carrier and it’s escort. Together the UPF ships manage to destroy two of the three fighters headed for the Admiral Clinton and two of the four headed for the Admiral R’kazk’tar, inducing a fire on a third.

The upper light cruiser and assault carrier fire at the light cruiser as it passes.  It is hit by 2 laser, an electron, and 2 rocket batteries damaging its combat control system and engines, knocking out its ICM launcher and reducing its hull integrity by 23%.

The lone light cruiser fires at the drifting heavy cruiser connecting with a rocket battery and its disruptor cannon destroying the heavily damaged sathar vessel.

Finally, the group of frigates and destroyer focus their fire on the fleeing heavy cruiser from the lower group connecting with 3 laser batteries, a rocket battery and a laser cannon damaging the heavy cruiser’s combat control system and reducing its hull integrity by 46%.

Offensively, the surviving figher manages to hit the Admiral Clinton with its assault rocket destroying the battleship. The Admiral R’kazk’tar is hit by an assault rocket from the two fighers and a torpededo from the light cruiser reducing its hull integrity by another 36%.

The fire from the remaining ships are focused on the UPF destroyer. It is hit by 4 laser batteries and an electron battery which knock out its masking screen launcher, short circuit its defensive systems, and reduces its hull integrity by 46%.

The surviving battleship, with its navigation control damage and seriously damaged hull, pulls to starboard but manages to hold together.  Given the speed differentials, and despite the greater acceleration of the smaller UPF ships, Spacefleet decides to not purse the main surviving group of sathar vessels but the upper two flight of fighters do go after the lone light cruiser.  The assault scouts and the frigate and destroyer group go after the surviving sathar fighters.  The fire on the sathar fighter induces a navigation control hit.  The fire on the light cruiser cause 9 HP of damage.

Defensively, the sathar light cruiser fires at the incoming fighters but only manages to hit one with a proton battery lightly damaging its hull.

Offensively, the UPF fighters hit the light cruiser with all eight assault rockets destroying it while the frigates and destroyer destroy two of the three surviving fighters with the remaining fighter having its combat control system damaged, its assault rocket launcher knocked out, its hull integrity reduced by 38% and a fire started onboard.

Final positions after the second round of combat, the destroyed sathar light cruiser, damaged UPF battleship and UPF fighters are off the top of the map while the fleeing sathar ships are off the left side. Click for full size image.

Turn 3

The fire on the battleship burns through the hull reducing its hull integrity by another 10%.  Its navigation control damage causes the large ship to pull to port and the strain on its severely damaged hull causes it to break apart destroying the vessel after only 10 days of active duty. The remaining sathar fighter is obliterated by the combined fire of the destroyer and frigates. 

Repair Turn 1

The lightly damaged fighters manage to repair their systems almost immediately and the destroyer manages to repair some of its hull. The sathar heavy cruiser manages to repair some of its hull as well.

Final Repairs

After another hour and a half the damaged UPF destroyer manages to fix as much as it can in space. All of its systems are fixed but the hull is stuck at 66% integrity and it will need to get into the starship construction center at Pale to complete repairs.

After another hour the sathar heavy cruiser has repaired enough of its hull that the surviving ships resume their acceleration out of the system. Another 2.5 hours later, it has repaired as much as it can outside of a shipyard. All of the internals systems are back online but it’s hull is stuck at 75% integrity until it gets back to SSC#5 for final repairs.

Lessons Learned

I knew the sathar were going to lose this one but I expected them to do a little better than they did. They managed to take out the two battleships, part of their primary objective, but didn’t do as much collateral damage as I was expecting/hoping they would. Part of that was the dice were just not cooperative, especially on the defensive fire round of the UPF move in turn one. I rolled a bunch of 80’s on the sathar’s to hit rolls and nothing really connected. Although the same thing happened to the UPF at another point so I guess it evens out.

The sathar misjudged the positions on the first round and were unable to make pass at the assault carriers like they wanted. They managed to get some ships out of the battle but not as many as I was hoping they would. The UPF really cleaned up.

The loss of the battleships will be significant, those won’t be replaced anytime soon. It will be interesting to see how that affects the fights going forward.

What are your thoughts on the battle? Share in the comments below.

Battle of New Pale (Truane’s Star) – FY61.287

This battle actually occurred two days ago in the timeline. However, since I was still catching up on the battles from the opening day of the conflict, this posting got delayed. Going forward, the battles will be much less frequent and the battle reports will arrive on they day they occur.

After a nearly an hour of intense battle around New Pale, militia and UPF forces manage to drive off the invading sathar fleet destroying two sathar vessels and seriously damaging the other three.

Unfortunately, due to heavy losses and critical damage, the UPF and militia forces were unable to pursue the fleeing sathar ships which began accelerating out of the system for a jump back to Zebulon shortly after the battle ended.

While the sathar have been driven off, the losses around New Pale represent the most damage to militia forces yet seen in this conflict and the second highest loss of ships overall, coming in only after the massive battle at Prenglar two days ago.

Goolar Nadd, New Pale News

Background

The Truane’s Star militia is supported by the remaining elements of Patrol Group Virgo which just returned from being stationed in the Kazak system in the Rim days before the sathar fleets appeared. Bolstered by the Spacefleet forces, and having seen the success of the UPF forces in the other systems two days prior, confidence is high that they can defeat the sathar ships.

The sathar have learned from those other engagements as well. Knowing that there is a second fleet en route just 11 days behind them, this battle fleet has some very specific orders: Eliminate the fighters and assault scouts!

Order of Battle

Had Patrol Group Virgo not been in the system, and the militia not had the extra assault scout, this would have been the scenario I presented as “A Pale Prospect” in the Stand Your Ground article in issue 3 of the Frontier Explorer (p30) back in 2013. Before starting this timeline project, this is how I thought the first fight in Truane’s Star would play out.

However, the additional ships completely change the dynamics and with the sathar’s new tactics, this turned out to be the most interesting battle for me so far as it did not go at all as I expected. And the high speeds meant that the ships were flying everywhere on the map.

Truane’s Star Militia

  • 4 Assault Scouts
  • 1 Frigate

Note that this is one more assault scout than described in the order of battle for the game in the KH Campaign Book. They captured this assault scout from the Star Devil pirates early in the timeline so it is available in the fight.

UPF – PG Virgo

  • 8 Fighters
  • 2 Assault Scouts
  • 2 Light Cruisers
  • 1 Assault Carrier

Sathar

  • 1 Frigate
  • 2 Destroyers
  • 1 Light Cruiser
  • 1 Heavy Cruiser

The Battle

Setup

The UPF and militia forces, deploying tactics that have worked in the other systems, set up in a broad line with the smaller ships on the outside, the two LC near the station at speed 15, with the assault scouts split into a flight of 4 (below the planet) and 3 (above), both groups at speed 20, and a flight of 4 fighters on either wing at speed 25.  The assault carrier is on the far side of the planet orbiting at speed 10 with the militia frigate acting as escort.  The station is in on the far side of the planet from the approaching sathar and orbiting counter clockwise.

The sathar, however, are not using the tactics they have used in other systems. With their new directive, they come in fast, high above the planet at a speed of 25! Additionally, they are formed up in an inverted form of their standard diamond formation with the heavier ships leading and headed straight for the upper group of fighters.

Initial positions of the UPF and sathar forces. Click for full size image.

Turn 1

The sathar ships advance straight at the fighters and at the last moment turn toward the upper group of assault scouts. The heavy cruiser remains at speed 25, while the light cruiser and frigate accelerate by 1 and 2 respectively to join up with the larger ship. They fire all weapons expect their torpedoes at the flight of 4 fighters. The destroyers accelerate to speed 27 and 28 and join up directing all their fire at the flight of assault scouts.

Defensively only the upper light cruiser and flight of assault scouts are in range and they fire everything at the lead destroyer. Only the light cruiser connects with its laser battery doing some minor hull damage.

The sathar open with a devastating barrage at the smaller ships. The light cruiser’s disruptor cannon vaporizes the lead fighter, while the disruptor cannon from the heavy cruiser knocks out the assault rocket launcher on his wingman. The third fighter is hit by a pair of laser batteries and the sathar frigate’s laser cannon damaging its acceleration and navigation control system and nearly destroying it. The final fighter is hit by an electron battery and destroyed.

The destroyers do just as well. The lead militia assault scout is hit by a laser battery, electron battery, and laser canon destroying it. The second assault scout is hit by a laser battery and laser cannon and also destroyed. The last assault scout in the group is hit by an electron battery and rocket battery knocking out its assault rocket launcher and nearly destroying the ship.

The sathar have done well, eliminating four ships and knocking out the assault rocket launchers on two others and severely damaging the last. Caught off-guard by the speed of the sathar advance and initial devastation, the UPF and militia forces scramble to react.

The surviving assault scout, heavily damaged, just drifts away from the battle at speed 20. The fighter with the damaged navigation control system pulls a hard turn to starboard remaining at speed 25 and flies away from the battle. Luckily, it doesn’t break up from the maneuver. The other fighter, relatively undamaged but unable to fight due to the loss of its assault rocket launcher, loops away from the sathar ships back toward the assault carrier and slows to speed 20.

The assault carrier and frigate accelerate to speed 12 and turn away from the oncoming ships. All of the other UPF and militia ships loop around and head toward the group of sathar ships centered on the heavy cruiser, the ships coming from below the station accelerating to get in range.

Defensively, the sathar continue to focus on the smaller ships firing all their energy battery weapons at the incoming fighters and their cannons at the wounded assault scout as it drifts by. They fire their rocket batteries at the light cruiser that has come into range.

All five cannons hit the assault scout causing a fire and damage to its maneuvering and damage control system before destroying it. Three of the five rocket batteries slam into the UPF light cruiser disabling its ICM launcher, completely knocking out its maneuvering and doing significant hull damage. The lead fighter is hit by a laser battery reducing its acceleration ability while the shots at the second fighter completely miss. The third fighter is hit by a laser and electron battery and destroyed. The final fighter takes a hit from an electron battery which starts an electrical fire on-board.

The surviving fighters with operational assault rockets fire at the light cruiser, three of which hit doing significant hull damage and causing a power short circuit knocking out its screens and ICMS. The assault scouts and more distant light cruiser fire at the heavy cruiser. Only two of the assault rockets from the assault scouts hit but cause significant hull damage (65% of total). The light cruiser hits with its laser battery and disruptor canon knocking out the heavy cruiser’s distruptor canon and acceleration capability. The other light cruiser hits the sathar frigate with its laser, electron, and proton batteries knocking out most of its acceleration ability and causing a fire.

Positions and courses of the ships at the beginning of the battle. Click for full image.

Turn 2

Unable to accelerate, the sathar heavy cruiser drifts down toward the assault carrier. It fires at the militia assault scouts with its energy weapons and its rocket weapons at the damaged light cruiser. The sathar destroyers decelerate and make a run at the undamaged light cruiser. The sathar light cruiser and frigate loop around and fire all their energy weapons and rocket batteries at the fighters and UPF assault scouts while they fire their torpedoes at the damaged light cruiser. The fire on the UPF fighter burns through over half of the small ship’s hull.

Defensively, the two UPF light cruisers focus their fire on their sathar counterpart hitting with multiple weapons reducing its acceleration ability, inducing a navigation control failure, knocking out its ICMs, and doing more damage to its hull but not destroying it. The assault scouts fire at the sathar frigate and hit with 2 laser batteries causing some minor hull damage. The station fires at one of the destroyers as they pass but misses and the assault carrier and militia frigate take long range shots at the heavy cruiser but also miss.

The militia assault scouts are both hit by a laser battery which knocks out all the maneuvering capability on one and slight reduces the maneuvering on the other. The lead (damaged) UPF light cruiser is hit by a rocket battery and torpedo doing some minor hull damage and shorting out its screens and ICMs. The trailing UPF light cruiser is pummeled by the destroyers having its screens and ICMs disabled and losing over half of its hull integrity.

The three fighters are each hit with a battery weapon destroying one, reducing the damage control capability on the second, and damaging the navigation control system on the third. The two UPF assault scouts are hit by a rocket battery and distruptor cannon respectively that knock out just over half of the first’s hull integrity and damages the assault rocket launcher on the second.

The seriously damaged fighter (off the top of the map) continues to spin out of control but still manages to hold together. The fighter with the disabled assault rocket launcher continues to approach the assault carrier, and the other fighter with the navigation control spins hard to starboard and flies off the top of the map. The assault carrier accelerates to speed 14 and loops down under the path of the heavy cruiser. The militia frigate splits off from the assault carrier and turns to engage the heavy cruiser. The lead light cruiser, its maneuvering knocked out, decelerates to speed 12 and drifts straight, currently out of the fight but trying not to get too far away. The other light cruiser turns to follow the heavy cruiser and manages to hold together through the maneuvering. The militia assault scout with no maneuvering left, decelerates as much as possible to avoid passing the sathar light cruiser and coming in range of its disruptor cannon. Unfortunately, it is now only 10,000 km away. The fighters still in the fight fire at the frigate while the assault scouts fire at the light cruiser. The fire on the sathar frigate does some minor hull damage.

Defensively the frigate and light cruiser fire at the assault scouts and fighters, destroying one of the fighters and seriously damaging the hull of the non-maneuvering assault scout and causing a fire on the same ship. The heavy cruiser fires at the militia frigate and knocks out its masking screens and reduces its acceleration ability.

Offensively, the frigate is hit by one assault rocket knocking out its laser battery, the light cruiser is hit by an assault rocket and two laser batteries destroying it, and the heavy cruiser is hit by the militia frigate’s laser canon knocking out its ICMs.

Courses and final positions after 20 minutes of fighting. Click for full image.

Turn 3

The sathar frigate accelerates and makes a pass at the assault scouts. The destroyers loop around to fire at the UPF light cruiser, and the heavy cruiser turns to strafe the assault carrier and flies out of the battle. The fire on the UPF assault scout burns through the hull destroying it.

Defensively, the assault scouts fire at the frigate and hit with a laser battery knocking out its laser canon. The station scores a long distance hit on the lead sathar destroyer knocking out its ICM launcher. The assault carrier hits the heavy cruiser knocking out its maneuvering engines. All other defensive fire misses.

Offensively, the sathar frigate hits the lead assault scout with a rocket battery, destroying it but misses with the torpedo aimed at the other assault scout. The sathar destroyers hit the UPF light cruiser with nearly everything, including both rocket batteries and torpedoes, and destroy it. The heavy cruiser hits the assault carrier with all of its energy battery weapons but the torpedo is intercepted by ICMs launched by the carrier. The hits knock out its navigation control system and causing some minor hull damage.

The two UPF fighters off the map continue to spin out of control but the damaged one doesn’t break up. The assault scouts make another run at the sathar frigate. The militia frigate strafes the sathar destroyers focusing its fire on the lead one and then loops around the planet. The lone UPF fighter continues to follow the assault carrier. The light cruiser off the map slows to speed 9. The assault carrier’s damaged navigation control system pulls it to port and it fires at the lead sathar destroyer as it passes by. The fire on the sathar frigate does some minor hull damage.

Defensively, the sathar destroyers fire at the militia frigate and while the lead frigate misses, the other hits with its laser and electron batteries knocking out the frigates laser cannon and maneuvering engines The defensive fire at the assault scouts miss.

The assault scouts hit the sathar frigate with a laser battery and assault rocket damaging its hull and knocking out its masking screens. From all the shots at the lead sathar destroyer, it is hit by a proton, rocket, and laser battery doing some significant hull damage.

Positions and courses at the end of the first half hour of battle. Click for full image.

Repair Turn

Almost every ship in the fight has some damage at this point. The only one that isn’t is one of the sathar destroyers.

On the UPF side, the fighter trailing the assault carrier, as well as the second UPF assault scout, repair their assault rocket launchers. The fighter that’s been spinning out of control from the beginning of the fight manages to repair its navigation control system as does the assault carrier. The carrier also repairs some of its hull. The militia frigate restores some of its maneuverability as does the light cruiser off the map. Unfortunately, the light cruiser’s hull repair runs into significant problems and its hull can only be repaired in a shipyard.

The sathar frigate puts out the fire while the other two ships repair some of their hull damage.

Turn 4

The sathar heavy cruiser, unable to maneuver and not wanting to risk acceleration and breaking up with its weakened hull, continues to drift away from the fight (its already off the map). The frigate, out of rocket weapons and with its energy weapons knocked out, is unable to fight and turns to follow the heavy cruiser, accelerating as much as possible with its damaged engines. The destroyers loop around the planet and strafe the assault scouts each firing all their energy weapons (their rockets and torpedoes are depleted) at a different assault scout.

Defensively, all ships fire at the lead sathar destroyer. The assault carrier and station hit knocking out its navigation control system and electron battery and causing some minor hull damage.

The lead sathar destroyer hits the surviving militia assault scout with it’s laser canon nearly destroying it. The other destroyer hits the UPF assault scout knocking out half of its hull integrity with it’s laser battery and damaging its combat control system with its electron battery.

The seriously wounded UPF ships continue to drift away from the battle or spin out of control while those that can, converge on the sathar destroyers again firing at the lead destroyer. The light cruiser (off the map) accelerates and starts to turn back toward the battle now that it has some maneuvering capability restored. With its limited maneuverability the militia frigate turns and takes long distance shots at the destroyers.

Defensively the destroyers fire their laser cannons at the militia frigate (which miss) and their energy batteries at the fighter and assault scout. Th trailing destroyer hits the assault scout with its electron battery slightly damaging its hull.

The UPF fighter and assault scout both hit the lead destroyer with their assault rockets. The fighter, frustrated at being out of the battle from the start, scores a massive hit knocking out nearly half of the destroyer’s hull integrity. The other assault rocket damages the destroyer’s combat control system. The gunner on the militia frigate lands an amazing long distance shot with the laser battery scoring a maximum damage hit and destroying the sathar vessel.

Positions and paths at the end of the fourth round of combat. There aren’t too many ships left and many have left the battle. Click for full sized image.

Turn 5

Knowing that it can out run the assault carrier, the destroyer fires its laser battery at the fighter and electron battery at the assault scout attempting to take them out of the fight and accelerates at maximum thrust to fly off after the heavy cruiser and frigate.

The assault scout and assault carrier return fire hitting with all of their batteries damaging the destroyer’s engines slightly and weakening its hull. The sathar’s electron battery connects with the UPF assault scout and destroys it. The laser battery misses the fighter.

With all of their ships damaged (expect the fighter) and many seriously out of position, the UPF commander calls off the pursuit of the sathar ships. The surviving UPF and militia vessels begin repairs and return the station.

Final ship positions and path as the sathar retreat. Click for full sized image.

Repairs

Over the course of the next thee hours, the UPF repair what they can and the assault carrier collects its scattered fighters. In the end most of the ships are fully repaired but the UPF light cruiser has hull damage that will require time in the shipyard.

The sathar form up and manage to repair most of their systems but all three ship have hull damage that will require time in a starship construction center to fully fix. While the damage to the destroyer is relatively minor (only 24% of its hull), the damage to the frigate and heavy cruiser is much more significant, 43% and 61%. Since they lost the fight here, they cannot use the local shipyard and must return to SCC#5 for repairs. They start accelerating out of the system being careful of the heavy cruiser’s hull.

Lessons Learned

When they want to, the sathar can do significant damage to the smaller UPF ships. Their tactics worked out quite well. In fact, much better than I expected. I really thought the UPF would win this one and eliminate all the sathar ships but would take significant damage. I never expected that the sathar would get away with three of their ships, although heavily damaged. The time to get those ships back into the fight will be much shorter than having to build new ones.

While the UPF and militia “won” and drove off the sathar, this was really a victory for the sathar in many ways as well. In the end, if you factor in the damage that requires a shipyard to fix, the sathar lost 198 hull points in this fight while the UPF and militia lost 228. If you just look at ships destroyed, then the sathar lost 2 ships for a total of 120 hull points while the UPF lost 12 ships, most of them fighters and assault scouts, totaling 200 hull points. Either way the sathar came out ahead. And they achieved their goal of taking out most of the assault rocket capability of the UPF forces in this system in advance of the next sathar attack in 11 days. While it doesn’t make up for the beatings they took in some of the other systems, it is definitely a boost to their morale.

There really isn’t much the UPF could have done differently other than be placed a little closer together for mutual support. The small fighters and assault scouts had no defense against the initial onslaught and paid the price. The only real defense there would have been to be further back from the station but then the sathar may have made a run at the station instead. This battle will definitely shift the tactics of both sides, at least somewhat. We’ll have to see what develops.