Not just 'Simple Traders'. A Babylon 5 A Call to Arms Battle Report

 

Director Kalora had a spring in her step and a smile on her face. The Earth Alliance had recognised their claim over the Retaria system. The act had been made very easy by the Resha-Kar corporations capture of one of their largest warships, an Omega class destroyer. With accusations of piracy being thrown at the Earth Force crew following the loss of the Resha-Attacker, the humans had quickly come round. The icing on that particular cake was then having salvage rights over the other Human ships that had been involved in the fighting, and being able to charge them extortionate amount of credits for 'assisting' a damaged ship in getting back under way. Things had improved from then. The Resha-Vanguard had just reported finding an asteroid with an estimated twenty-five thousand tons of gold, and that was a low estimate. 

Kaloras communications chimed on 'Director, the Resha-Conveyor has just reported they have had an engineering casualty with multiple crew wounded, they are requesting assistance' Damnit, she thought, this is all I need. The Conveyor was one of the newer additions to the Resha-Kar fleet, and while the ship itself was old, the Batrado was still a newer design than most ships their corporation owned 'And Director, we have detected a force of Pak'ma'ra ships moving to intercept her, they are ignoring all hails' Just what we need, she thought, disgusting carrion eaters crawling all over our newest ship. 'Ok, get the fleet under way, we will put on a show of force and scare them away'

    Today I am playing a match against Martin and his new Pak'ma'ra fleet. We are both getting practice games in with our new forces before we dive into a new campaign. This will be the first outing for the Pak'ma'ra so the fleet composition reflects that he is trying out a little bit of everything at this level. I will be commanding my Brakiri fleet and trying out the Haltana gravitic frigate. The shifters it carries look like they can be very annoying to face being able to turn an enemy ship up to 45 degrees and deal damage if you target them with more than one. you can only shift them the once regardless of how many shifters are used, but the more you do, the greater the chance of turning them, and the more damage you will cause. 

    The mission will be rescue, this gives an extra 10 victory points to the side that has a ship within 6" of the ship in distress at the end of turn 12, or if both sides do, then the ship that is the highest priority level, and if the priority level is equal, then neither side gets the bonus. We will be playing 5 Raid points per side. 

All miniatures are 3D Printed, and the STL's are currently available on Cults3D made by Tyrel Lohr

Brakiri fleet. 

The fleet I used in this game is not too different from the one I used last time, swapping the Brikorta and Shakara for a pair of Haltanas. The Brokados, in addition to being a fleet carrier and having a respectable 8 fighter flights also has +1 command. against the Pak'ma'ra this translates to a +4 advantage on initiative where against others it would probably only reduce my own disadvantage. Hitting power will be a pair of Haltonas, these have decent all round firepower and a fairly hard hitting beam weapon. The Ikorta would give me the option of boarding if it became an option, and has some respectable firepower of its own to go with the durability of 2 interceptors, and finally, 4 Kabriks. These are just a toolbox unit, very good firepower, fast and agile for a Brakiri fleet, with breaching pods as a bonus. their only downside is the complete absence of anything resembling durability. Miniatures wise, I will be using the Antophs as the Halonas and Haltanas as there is no 3D STL for them currently, and no official rules for the Antoph in ACTA.

2x Haltona Frigate, Resha-Defender, Resha-Shepherd

2x Haltana Gravitic Frigate, Resha-Inexorable, Resha-Inflexible

1x Brokados Battle Carrier, Resha-Emissary

1x Ikorta Light Assault Cruiser, Resha-Striker

4x Kabrik Police Ship, Resha-Justice, Resha-Judge, Resha-Sheriff, Resha-Bailiff

Pak'ma'ra fleet

A little bit of everything

The Pak'ma'ra fleet is just a little bit of everything. there are some gaps in what can be taken. there is no available STL for the Halik, for example (Which is why I use the Antoph as a proxy for now). Its quite often hard to fully judge a ship by its stats alone, sometimes they can surprise you. The main advantage that the Pak'ma'ra have in this match is the volume of longer ranged attacks. their plasma torpedoes have a decently long range, AP and quite scary tripple damage. the only saving grace is that they are slow loading, and hopefully if they are being used, it means that the range is too open for the energy mines to have cleared out any fighters. I'm not sure what to expect when facing this force.

4x Sunhawk Battlecruiser

2x Ikorta Armed Merchant

2x Tulas'Hal merchant

1x Kulas'Sal Heavy Merchant

1x Urik'Hal Supermerchant

Deployment

    We generated the terrain randomly, and we ended up with a battlefield that was surprisingly open. The features we generated were towards the edges of the battle area. Naturally the Batrado takes pride of place in the middle of the field. The Pak'ma'ra unsurprisingly lost the roll to deploy and placed the Sunhawks on the Pakma'ra far right, with the Kulas'sal and both Tulas'Hal's towards the center, and the Ikortas and Urik'Hal on the left.

The 2 Fleets face off against each other. with a disk of undo looking ominous

    Counter deploying, the Brakiri put their whole force towards their left oposite the Sunhawks. There was a small chance I would be able to get a few shots in, but I reasoned that they would likely redeploy, and if not, then the rest of their force would be too far away to intervene. The Haltana's were in my center backed up by the Ikorta and the Brokados was in support of the Kabriks, and my Haltonas were on my right. I reasoned they would have the best chance of getting some long range shots into the Sunhawks if they weren't quick enough in redeploying.

Turn 1

    The Two fleets faced each other, and as expected, the flanking Sunhawks darted towards the main body of the Pak'ma'ra fleet. 

Pak'ma'ra Sunhawks quickly redeploy

    The Brakiri Kabriks all moved towards the Brakiri Left skirting round the asteroid belt but this would leave them trailing the Brakiri fleet. This wasn't all bad, as police ships they have a distinct lack of durability and some long range weapons. The rest of the Brakiri fleet advanced towards the Sunhawks, but it was obvious that they would be unlikely to catch anything. meanwhile the slow and ponderous Pak'ma'ra ships turned towards the Brakiri force. Brakiri fighters took up guard positions around the larger ships as the Brokados launched all available fighters. with all weapons out of range, no fire was exchanged between the forces.

The Brakiri move forwards 

Turn 2

    The Sunhawks directed all their power towards their engines, and sped off towards the main Pak'ma'ra force, while the Brakiri fleet maneuvered to keep them in their foward weapons arcs. The Kabriks continued to maneuver round the asteroid belt, but it was clear that this particular move would leave them at least a turn behind the bulk of the Brakiri fleet, again no fire was exchanged.

The Sunhawks reach their fleet with the Brakiri close behind

Turn 3

    The two forces closed with one another. The Brakiri Haltonas, the Shepherd and the Defender forming the Brakiri vanguard. They had approached dangerously close to the Pak'ma'ra fleet and space was lit up by weapons fire. Graviton pulsar fire poured into the largest Pak'ma'ra ship, the Kulas'Sal, doing minor damage, but the Brakiri had directed their powerful weapons into one of the Pak'ma'ra Ikortas, the twin beams causing extensive damage, and knocking the ship out of action. 

The first weapons fire is exchanged as the vanguards of the 2 forces enter weapons range.

    Then the space around them was lit up as the 2 Tulas'Hals formed a plasma web, scattering the Brakiri fighters and silhouetting the Shepherd perfectly, The Kulas'Sal opened up with its full battery of weapons and landed almost every single shot. One of the Shepherds reactors lost lost integrity and exploded filling the engineering space with toxic gasses and showering the area with shrapnel. Internal bulkheads were breached and massive casualties were caused to the crew. The ship barely held together as emergency backups tried to take up the power load. Director Kalora on board the Emissary sat bolt upright as damage reports started to flood in.

Turn 4

    Contact was now unavoidable, and the Pak'ma'ra were wheeling their entire force to meet the Brakiri force. The first exchange had been fairly even, the Pak'ma'ra losing one ship, and the Brakiri all but losing one of theirs. The forces were now in a close quarters battle. The Inexorable and Inflexible powering forwards to bring their weapons into range, the Shepherd lurched to starboard to avoid the Kulas'sal as it diverted all power to its engines and charged towards the Emissary. 

A Confusing melee erupts and the Pak'ma'ra Kulas'Sal charges forward.....

    Kalora on board had given orders to maneuver the ship to bring the laser cannon into action. seeing the danger to the flagship, the Brakiri assault ship, the Striker moved to interpose itself. Weapons fire between the two forces intensified, as more ships came into range. A second plasma explosion tore through more Brakiri fighters as torpedoes from the Sunhawks poured towards the Shepherd. most of the shots missed but a few found their mark, blasting holes through the rear of the ship and totally disabling the engines and causing feedback to the only remaining reactor. It entered it's emergency shutdown cycle, and the Shepherd was left dead in space running on emergency power only. The Inexorable and Inflexible used the mass of the Pak'ma'ra ships against them and shifted their directions of travel. the Kulas'Sal was shifted sharply to port and had its nose lifted as the Brakiri ships poured fire in from all directions. The laser from the Emissary raking across and then through the large ship as it's thrusters fought against the graviton shifters. Its last act before the ship was torn to pieces by a cataclysmic explosion was to knock the port weapons of the Inexorable offline. 

....Where it is destroyed by fire from all directions

    The explosion showered the Striker with wreckage but it managed to twist its way through most of it, with the gravity shielding deflecting the rest. A stray shot struck one of the Tulas'Hals and severed the power lines to the ships engines leaving it dead in space, while the Pak'ma'ra Ikorta found itself travelling in a new direction without any input from the helmsman. Damage was racking up on numerous ships, It was just a question of who would survive the inferno.

Turn 5

    The Sunhawks charged in. Their missiles expended against the Shepherd, they moved to bring their plasma batteries into range of the Defender. 

With missiles reloading, the sunhawks charge in to bring their plasma weapons into use....

    The Emissary lined up it's beam weapon against the now motionless Tulas'Hal while the Pak'ma'ra Ikorta turned to bring itself back into the fight. The Urik'hal launched a full salvo of fire against the Sheriff, and easily disabled the police ship, it was hit in return by the three remaining Kabriks but suffered only minimal damage. Meanwhile the Pak'ma'ra again found themselves being twisted and turned by the Inexorable and Inflexible.while fire poured into them. Two of the Sunhawks lost their weapons lock, one being almost torn to pieces by the gravitic shifters the burning wreck hurtled past the Brakiri ships tumbling as it did so, another suffering serious damage, plates being ripped from the ships hull but all critical systems were still operational.

....but their attacks are disrupted by Graviton Shifters.

    The Emissary fired at the motionless Tulas'Hal, but did only minimal damage, the small ship was a hard target in an area of space twisting with the relativistic effects of so much gravitational weaponry. The fight wasn't one sided, the Defender was peppered with plasma fire that impacted on its nose, and the Inexorable was suffering at the hands of the Pak'ma'ra Ikorta, but it seemed like the advantage was starting to move towards the Brakiri

Turn 6

    The Sunhawks blasted through the Brakiri formation, aiming straight for the Kabriks. The Inflexible and Inexorable did their best to deflect the Sunhawks from their objective, managing to slightly alter the trajectory of one of them before it could fire, causing its shots to miss.

The Sunhawks press their attack into the Brakiri fleet....

The remaining Sunhawk disabled one Kabrik, The Justice, and killed or wounded most of the crew on the Bailiff. Breaching pods that had been launched towards the only mobile Tulas'Hal were shot down by the antifighter defences, but the Brakiri had the upper hand, the Tumbling Sunhawk exploded and dealt more damage to the Defender, and also caught the Striker, but weapons fire from the Brakiri knocked one of the sunhawks out of action, leaving it dead in space, while the Emissary finally found its aim and punched a hole straight through the motionless Tulas'Hal. Further fire dealt almost crippling fire to both remaining Sunhawks, as the Brakiri ships had now managed to maneuver themselves behind the Pak'ma'ra

...and are disrupted again by graviton shifters and suffer heavy damage 

    The outcome now inevitable, The Brakiri being in a much stronger position, the Pak'ma'ra ships that could directed all their power to their engines and accelerated away. The Brakiri fleet had some ships with damaged engines, so did not pursue. The encounter was over.

Brakiri 36-18 Pak'ma'ra

Brakiri Victory

Conclusion

    Pak'ma'ra ships are tough. Their 6+ damage ignore keeps their ships running far longer than you would expect. While not as good as sealing bulkheads it does let them fire at full effectiveness. The turret weapons of the Tulas'Hals and the Kulas'Sal were also surprisingly effective, and the close range energy mines were super effective at stripping fighters. The Kulas'Sal did surprisingly well when it scored 15 out of 16 hits on the Shepherd, and then hit the vital systems crippling and skeleton crewing the ship in a single volley. The gravitic shifters on the Haltanas was also devastating, they let the Brikari avoid some bore sighted shots, turning a few ships at vital moments to take ships out of weapon arcs, and causing some damage to various ships. The damage wasn't oppressive, but having a raid level hull at skirmish cost is not something you can complain about. I'm still not sure about the Kabrik. It has an impressive amount of firepower and utility, but they really suffer when they get shot at. being skeleton crewed after 4 damage, and adrift after 6 means they are really fragile. I'd say at this point they aren't worth a patrol point each, but 2 for 1 patrol point is perhaps a bit too good value.
    On the game itself, I made a few unforced errors. During the deployment, I should have switched the placement of the Haltanas and Haltonas, as deployed, when we first made contact on turn 3, the Haltanas were just out of range. I also should have tried a bit harder to stay out of range of the turreted Pak'ma'ra ships. they were lumbering and slower than my ships, so it shouldn't have been too difficult. 

    The Pak'ma'ra took advantage of the situation very well, and their lumbering ships had a bit of a party in the melee. the turrets meant that it didn't matter where my ships were, they could be shot. The only criticism I could level is not using the range advantage of the plasma torpedoes fully. The shots when they came were sporadic and didn't have the volume effect that would have overwhelmed single ships and allowed the triple damage to do its work.
    There were also some key points where beam weapons were decisive. the Brokados effectively one shotted the Kulas'Sal. from a beam 2 shot I scored 8 hits, and then caused a catastrophic explosion for 36 damage on top (BOOM). the first shots into the Pak'ma'ra Ikorta on turn 3 also did something similar, beating the odds to kill the ship in 2 shots. 
    In the end game, the Pak'ma'ra lack of agility on a lot of their ships meant that despite quite a few Brakiri ships being heavily damaged, they would have been able to outmaneuver the slow ships and keep in their blind spots going into turn 7 and beyond.

Kalora was in high spirits. The Resha-Conveyor was now back under way. The Shepherd's crew reported they had managed to restore partial main power and were working to get the engines repaired. the ship would need extensive yard work, and it might have to be converted into a transport, but at least it wasn't a total loss. the 2 disabled Kabriks likewise were salvageable but Kalora couldn't shake the feeling theat Pri-Wakat were over hyping their product.

The Pak'ma'ra ships had jumped out of the system once the surviving crew from their disabled ships had reached them in their shuttles. She hadn't been in a mood to negotiate so had instead seized the ships and ordered them to leave the system. Simple traders my ass, she mused. Still, they now had a few more ships to add to their corporate inventory. The Ikorta, amusingly, had been built by Resha-Kar during the Dilgar was and sold to the Pak'ma'ra shortly after it ended and it was in fairly good condition despite the combat damage. The merchant ship too would be salvageable. Both ships would of course need every square inch of space sandblasting to get rid of the smell, but that wasn't a job she would have to do herself. The Sunhawk was in the worst condition, but provided they could get it back to dock, then they could at the very least break it up for parts. She grinned as she considered the designations she would give the new ships. As she had acquired them, it was her right. The Tulas'Hal she called the Resha-Bounty, The Sunhawk she named Resha-Splinter, and the Ikorta she called the Resha-Surprise.

'Director' the call pulled her out of her reverie, 'Resha-Vanguard has revised their estimate on the asteroid, its now minimum 35,000 tons of gold....'