The Sky Full of Stars. Battle of XL-387-G. Turn 7

'Warleader J'Kon was strapped into his chair on the bridge of the K'Tel-Var, the distance to the planet of Ptarlack was dropping fast even as the fleet decelerated. The Sor-Vi had provided constant updates on the size and disposition of the Dilgar forces, and now that they were massed in orbit of the planet, he was intent on dealing a killing blow. It would be a difficult encounter, the Dilgar ships were faster and more heavily armed, not to metion having a technological edge, but here they would be fixed defending a static objective, a perfect opportunity. All the Narn ships were at full readiness, their weapons armed, damage control teams were ready, and blast doors were sealed. Frazi's had taken position as close escorts to ward off the swarms of Dilgar fighters that were likely to meet them. He opened communications with the whole battlegroup and delivered a short message, "Good Hunting" The battle had begun'

Overview

The Centauri are all but eliminated from the campaign, suffering a series of  major defeats against the Dilgar and the Narn in a short period of time and leaving them in control of no strategic objectives. The Narn currently have the larger fleet, but the Dilgar possess the superior possessions, and their ships are very very good. Victory in the campaign will go to whoever controls all the strategic objectives, or when their enemies have insufficient forces to contest the system. The Centauri are very close to that point, and the Narn decide to force the issue against the Dilgar and launch an attack on Ptarlack. A major victory here will cripple the Dilgar fleet, and allow the Narn free reign to seize the rest of the system.

Ptarlack

The Narn Objective

Ptarlack has suffered extensively at the hands of the Dilgar. the planet is suitable for colonization, so they have heavily fortified several settlements, and commenced the genocide of the native sentient species in order to prepare it for settlers. A large orbital facility has started construction, and a steady stream of merchant ships have brought additional supplies for the garrison, as well as orbital defences.

Planetary Assault.

This is a War level encounter with the Narn as the attacker, they have 7 war points to the Dilgars 5, with the Dilgar also possessing a station and 4 defence satelites.
The Narn fleet has been split into 2 components, the main force will enter the combat zone on turn 1, with a smaller force kept in hyperspace. the smaller force will use jump engines to enter the battle closer to the planet. the defences on the surface are heavy, so time is of the essence to whittle down the defences, and land troops.

The whole Narn attack force

Narn Main Force:

G'Vrahn Class Fast Cruiser G'Tok-Nar

G'Quonth Class  Attack Cruiser: Kar'Loth-Nar

G'Quan Class Heavy Cruisers: K'Tan'Ri, Vin'Tak-Var, Na'Tor

G'Tel Class Command Cruiser: K'Tel-Var

Var'Nic Class Destroyers: Sho'Tan, Cho'Ven

Thentor Class Frigate: Tol'Nar'Eth

Sho'Kov Class Cutters: Shu'Neth, Shu'Cho-Esh, Shu'Vas-Neth

Sho'Kar Class Scout Cruiser: Sor-Vi

Narn Assault Force:

Bin'Tak Class Dreadnought: Vin'Tan-Tor

T'Loth Class Assault Cruisers: Kar'Taran, Vesh'Taran

G'Karith Class Patrol Cruiser: Na'Drath

Artemis Class Escort Frigate: Compass Rose

Sho'Kov Class Cutter: Shu'Var

Dilgar deployment.

The planet is the most significant feature, and the Dilgar fleet deploys in order to take best advantage of it. there are 2 large asteroid belts present on the battlefield, debris from Dilgar weapons tests on several small moons that were present.

Dilgar defensive disposition

The Defensive force is quite significant, with a fearsome number of fairly long range missiles. the main component is heavily armoured ships, with some faster more lightly armoured, but heavily armed ships, with the addition of both the Dilgar fleet carriers being on the field. Dilgar torpedo fighters are lethal and the ability to recycle them is very powerful. The carriers themselves are also quite fast, tough, and have a surprising amount of firepower.

2x Mankhat class dreadnought

2x Wahant class heavy assault ship

2x Garasoch class heavy carrier

2x Kahtrik So class cruiser

2x Tratharti class gunship

2x Ochlavita class destroyer

1x Jashakar Tae class torpedo ship

3x Jashakar Vi class scout ship

1x Station

4x Defence satelites

Turn 1

The Narn Fleet start their attack

The Dilgar had detected the Narn fleet maneuvering to attack with more than enough advance warning to prepare their forces to meet them. Advancing towards them was almost the entirety of the Narn battle line. The distinctive silhouette of the G'Quan's were unmistakable. what was more unusual though was one of the ships they detected. it was faster and looked very distinctive. The Dilgar forces started to move towards the Narn fleet. in terms of numbers it looked like an even fight, but the Dilgar had the advantage of a fully armed and operational space station which could lend its firepower. The Narn got the opening shot off, an energy mine from the G'Tok-Nar catching a Garasoch, 2 of the Jashakars and 2 defence satelites in its blast. The G'Vrahn class boasts a very impressive range on its energy mines, and can shoot it multiple times a game. one of the satelites was destroyed outright, while minor damage was inflicted on all other targets. All other weapons for both sides were out of range, but the Dilgar were caught unaware as a pair of jump points opened around the planet. 

Jump points form as the Dilgar advance to meet the Narn

The Narn Scout Cruiser Sor-Vi had spent a torturous amount of time mapping the locations and fields of effect of the network of jump jammers the Dilgar had installed, and the shot from the G'Vrahn had taken out a key jammer preventing jump points that close to the planet.

Turn 2

The Narn fleet reduced the power to their engines to keep the range as open as possible for as long as possible. The Dilgar had a number of ships with frightening missile loads, and the G'Quans, although built tough, lacked any organic anti missile defences, instead having to rely on fighters for close interceptor support. The pair of Tratharti's nevertheless found themselves unable to avoid entering the Narn weapons range and opted to accelerate forwards in order to inflict some damage before they were taken under fire. Their targets were a pair of Sho'Kovs, and they managed to get into their own weapons range even as their crews ensured blast doors were sealed, and damage control teams were ready. Thoruns sped past them as they opened fire. The Shu'Var and Shu'Cho-Esh were both destroyed, the Shu'Var detonating spectacularly as its torpedo magazine was breached.  

The Dilgar gunships charge the Narn fleet...

Simultaneously, the Narn opened fire. an energy mine from the G'Quonth, the Kar'Loth-Nar detonated in close proximity to one of the Tratharti's catching several flights of the Thoruns in addition, and it's ion missiles slammed into the same target. Heavy Lasers from all the Narn ships bisected one of the Tratharti's hull and completely shattered the ship, its hull disintegrating under the barrage, fragments of debris spiraled into nearby Thoruns and broke up the formations. The second Tratharti was more fortunate, it managed to weather a spectacular amount of fire as non vital compartments were blown to pieces and the ships armour deflected a lot of the incoming fire. a whole side of the ship glowed cherry red under the barrage of fire. Through all this the Vin'Tak'Var was hit by a long range missile from the Dilgar station, the Frazi's providing close escort were caught completely by surprise at such a long range volley and were destroyed. the G'Quan being hit on the port front quarter. The armour stopped the worst of the damage, compartmentalization and redundancy meant that, aside from a rent in the ships armoured scheme, it was fully operational. 

....and are destroyed

with 2 jump points already open, a third formed close to one of the asteroid belts. the Narn reinforcements could now enter the field from 3 places. Casualties and damage had been inflicted on both sides, but the main clash was about to happen.

Turn 3

The Vin'Tan-Vor, the Largest ship in the Narn force jumps to normal space through one of the opened jump points, with the Kar'Taran Shu'Neth and Compass Rose. The huge Bin'Tak aligning its main battery perfectly into the rear quarter of one of the Garasoch's, the Compass Rose taking up a defensive position as the Dilgar send a massive formation of torpedo fighters to deal with this force.

Narn reinforcements start to arrive

The Main force continues to advance, the Tratharti that had survived the previous barrage of fire was unable to evade action, and was torn to pieces by the secondary battery of a trio of G'Quan's, the shattered hull tumbling uncontrollably past the Narn force. A barrage of energy mines detonated in the midst of the Dilgar fleet the pair of Garasoch's catching the worst of the fire. One was crippled, its hangars smashed and its engines wrecked, while the other was hit by so many shots it's not clear exactly what happened. one moment there was a fully functional ship with fighters ready to launch, and the next, a rapidly expanding cloud of molten debris.

As a Garasoch is destroyed, the Dilgar fire a huge volley of missiles into the Narn fleet

The Narn did not escape unharmed. the Mankhat's and Wahants had both brought their missile batteries into range, and these were now unleashed. The Vin'Tak-Var was targetted by the pair of dreadnoughts. additional Frazi's had moved in to cover the gap in defences left when the ships escorting fighters had been destroyed. they were almost too late as a deluge of missiles approached. the first of the volley were downed, then a few more, but the Frazi's could not stop all the missiles, and there were a lot of them. Missiles impacted on the Vin'Tak-Var, explosions blossoming from its armoured hull. One missile penetrated through the gap left by the missile hit from the station, it passed through bulkheads, and splinter protection. severed energy lines, and came to rest in engineering, one half of the warhead had penetrated the citadel, and it lay between the main reactor, and the forward energy capacitors. for a few seconds, the startled engineering crew looked at it aghast , a sigh of relief was let out, and then some nervous laughter. It was a dud, but the majority of the ships hull had been torn to shreds, and the ship started to lose power.

She was not alone, the Wahants targeted the Na'Tor, and that G'Quan too weathered a barrage of missiles. the forward section of the ship was torn to pieces, the ships main battery, the Heavy Laser, was blown clean off the ship, smashing the primary sensor array before tearing one of the 3 engines to pieces.The Na'Tor wasn't dead in space, but she started to drop out of formation.

At the other end of the battle, the Bin'Tak obliterated a Jashakar, heavily damaged an Ochlavita and put several shots into one of the the Mankhats as it unleased it's volley of missiles. the Compass rose did it's best to fend off the swarm of dilgar fighters, but was overcome by sheer numbers. The G'Tok-Nar added an energy mine shot to the fire from the Bin'Tak, and damaged both Dilgar destroyers, and destroyed 5 flights of fighters, the G'Vrahn shooting the remainder of its guns into one of the Mankhats to little effect.

The Vin'Tak-Var explodes, and breaks the base of my flagship

The Vin'Tak-Var was torn to pieces in a massive explosion. one second the captain was reporting a loss of power to the weapons and engines, and the next, the ship was just..gone 

Turn 4

The Dilgar had caused extensive damage to the Narn fleet. One G'Quan destroyed, another was heavily damaged, but the missiles needed to be reloaded, and more Narn ships entered the field. They were now effectively surrounded. A Bin'Tak to their rear, and a still incredibly lethal force to their front. the 2 forces closed with each other again, and now the Narn had all their weapons in range.

The Dilgar are caught in a crossfire....

The 2 Kahtriks, who until now had been ignored, fired into the G'Tok-Nar to no effect, the frazi's in close support shooting down their missiles, and the bolters doing little damage. The Garasoch with no ther option charged at the Narn fleet and was swiftly destroyed. with the whole Narn fleet now on the field, and in a better position they unleashed a hail of fire. The Kar'Loth-Nar It's energy mine reloaded, fired this at the pair of Mankhats, followed by a volley of ion torpedoes. the rest of the Narn ships did the same. Fire from the Dilgar was much reduced, and one by one, the Dilgar ships were isolated, and destroyed. Both Mankhats, being hit by massed laser fire, and one of the Wahants being destroyed, with the second one suffering heavy damage. In response, the Dilgar Thorun Torpedo fighters scored a massive number of hits on the Bin'Tak, and in a single volley almost crippled the behemoth. this did not stop it from dealing a killing shot to one of the Mankhats, or lending fire to destroy one of the Jashakars to its front.

....and then destroyed

The Kahtirks avoided any fire, and with the Narn poised to eliminate the rest of the Dilgar fleet in very short order, they were incredibly surprised when the Narn ships opened jump points, and withdrew. leaving behind them a battlefield littered with damaged and destroyed ships, the majority of them, Dilgar.

Losses:
Dilgar: 2x Mankhat, 2x Tratharti, 2x Garasoch, 2x Jashakar, 1x Wahant, 2x Satelites

Narn: 1x G'Quan, 3x Sho'Kov, 1x Artemis

Result: Dilgar Victory

Conclusion

Time was our enemy at the end. The Narn were in a very commanding position, while the Bin'Tak and a G'Quan were both heavily damaged, their loss would not have affected the overall outcome of the battle. The Narn intention was to eliminate as much of the Dilgar fleet as possible, and then try to take the planet. The station would have been a tough nut to crack, as would the sheer number of emplacements on the planet, and the troop numbers. It's doubtful whether I could have achieved both my primary objective of eliminating a good portion of the enemy fleet, and then secured the planet. Time constraints also meant that we were the last table standing at our games club, and that denied me the opportunity to kill the last 3 capital ships the Dilgar had on the board and then try to take the planet.

On the Dilgar side, their ships are scary, and massively over gunned, the torpedo fighters are borderline broken in their firepower, their low dogfight score being the only saving grace of having to fight them. I was a bit upset to lose the Vin'Tak-Var, it was an insanely unlucky (or lucky) shot that took it down and it had received a number of really useful refits. I would have prefered to lose any of my War level ships to losing that one. The Mankhats with their triple damage shots are quite oppressive, but its made up by the fact they are not terribly tough. Overall though, I'm very happy with the result of the battle. The Dilgar battle line is effectively gone.

'come quick, come quick, came the call from his young clan sister, she pointed into the sky. The sky demons were fighting with the sky gods. They've come to save us, they've come to destroy the demons she cried, tears of joy streamed down her face. The Gods, they fight for us! she yelled. The sky was filled with new shining stars and angelic fire. Shining beams of light shone through the heavens and tore the demons to pieces, he saw one by one, theGods slew the demons. For hours the whole clan watched as the night sky was turned into day, they gasped as one of the Gods was felled and then cheered when the others wrought their revenge on the Demons. And then it was over, the Gods left. Many many of the sky demons had been felled, but they still remained, the monstrous form of their leader still hung in the sky.'