Second Battle of Khilsiek: Babylon 5 A Call to Arms Battle Report.

 Admiral Hayashi suppressed his urge to smile choosing instead to maintain his stoic demeanour. The Brakiri ships were moving slowly and their course would take them to a rendezvous with rebel forces. Naval Intelligence had provided the timetable for this convoy and it looked like they were right on time. The Brakiri were renowned for their promptness. There were 8 ships in all, 6 Transports and 2 small escort ships. The transports would be carrying all manner of  armaments, up to and including a substantial number of Delta-V's that were on board the Brakiri Carriers that had been assigned to ferry them.

Hayashi watched as the convoy reached the point where escape would be impossible and issued his orders.

'This is the Admiral to all ships, commence operation, good hunting.'

Introduction

The Brakiri Syndicracy, in the form of the Resha-Kar corporation, and the Earth Alliance have recently come to blows over the Retaria and Khilsiek systems and a number of clashes have taken place. Resha-Kar has started supplying rebel forces with ships and weapons but has accrued fairly substantial material losses. They have inflicted significantly more to the Earth Alliance and the Pak'ma'ra but they are a relatively small corporation and not equipped to fight a protracted conflict against a numerically superior opponent. Their losses have meant their modern ships have had to be withdrawn from Khilsiek for repairs and in their place Resha-Kar has been forced to deploy a number of older Antoph-class ships that have been obsolescent for over 30 years. This obsolescence has led to the majority of the class being converted into freighters, but a dozen or so have been retained in their original configuration to act as convoy escorts and to deal with raiders and other smaller groups.
These old ships now find themselves on the front line of a territorial dispute that looks to be spiraling out of control. A case of mistaken identity leads Earth Force to attack what they think is a small and lightly protected convoy. Will the old Brakiri ships survive?

For this game we will be playing a 5 point Raid priority battle, and keeping it quite simple with the 'A Call to Arms' mission

Earth Alliance

David is bringing his Earth Alliance fleet again. The fleet is based around a pair of Nova Dreadnoughts supported by lots of fighters, and a pair of Artemis'. The fleet packs a serious punch, but outside of the fighters and a smattering of missiles, the range on the ships is quite short. the EA ships will need to get close. It is a 3rd age fleet so the fighters are Thunderbolts which are highly effective strike fighters and the fleet benefits from +1 initiative, increased to +2 thanks to the Avenger, but the ship selection could very easily be taken in an Early years fleet. 

Nova Dreadnoughts EAS Nelson, EAS Iron Duke
Artemis-class Heavy Frigate EAS Aeneas, EAS Dido
Hermes-class fast courier: EAS Ben-my-chree, EAS Gypsy-moth
Oracle-class scout cruiser. EAS Cassandra
Avenger-class fleet carrier EAS Invincible
18x Thunderbolts

Resha-Kar

For this game I wanted to experiment with fleet composition. The Core of the force is made up by a trio of Antoph-class Light Cruisers. These ships are roughly analogous with the Haltona but are more of a prow on ship with their firepower concentrated forward with their side and rear weapons being less powerful, they are also my favourite Brakiri ship and this will be the first time I am not using them as proxies for a Halik and its variants. Supporting them are a pair of Brikorta light carriers to bring along enough fighters to at least contest the fighter space. The fighters will be supplemented by a Halikorta. this Ikorta variant brings some escort ability to the field which will be invaluable. Finally, a pair of Rakarta patrol ships round out the force and are included mainly to act as initiative sinks, but they can provide some supporting fire if required.

Antoph-class Light Cruisers. Resha-Active, Resha-Hunter, Resha-Venturer.
Brikorta-class light carrier. Resha-Boxer, Resha-Nimble
Halikorta-class escort cruiser, Resha-Buckler
Rakarta-class patrol ship, Resha-Lookout, Resha-Picket
8x Falkosi

Deployment

Initiative: Earth Alliance

The Battlefield was quite sparse and predictably the Brakiri lost the initiative roll. The deployment was fairly predictable, Brakiri ships are not very quick, and the Antophs are a touch slower than Haliks and their variants.

The Earth Alliance Surprise the Brakiri 'merchant' fleet

The Earth Forces deployed on the Brakiri left, leaving at least a few Brakiri ships out of position and with nothing between the fleets.

Turn 1

Initiative: Earth Alliance

'What do you mean they are moving to engage us? those are merchant ships!'

The Earth Alliance force emerged from the cover of a small cluster of asteroids right in the path of the Resha-Kar 'convoy'. The Brakiri Force turned to meet the Earth Alliance ships and their carriers scrambled their fighters. There was initially some confusion but it was quickly brought under control as orders were sent and received. For their part the Humans had timed their attack almost perfectly, but this wasn't a convoy of merchant ships. Reactors were brought online, weapons were powered up, and in the space of a few minutes both the Humans and Brakiri had cause to be surprised. There was no time or space for elaborate maneuvers. A collision was inevitable.

The 2 fleets start to Maneuver, the Brakiri prepare to go straight at the Humans

Earth Alliance 0 - 0 Resha-Kar

Turn 2

Initiative: Earth Alliance

'They must be bluffing, send Aeneas and Dido ahead, they will back down once we call their bluff.'

The two forces continued to close with one another. Admiral Hayashi was a little startled by the reaction from the Brakiri and issued orders for his smaller ships to close to weapons range. the Frigates were more lightly armed and thus less likely to accidentally destroy a merchant ship than would the Nelson or Iron Duke if they opened fire. Hayashi did not want to be headlining an ISN report into an Earth Force attack on unarmed civilians.

The first shots are exchanged as light units enter weapons range

The EAS Dido closed with the Resha-Hunter. The Hunter, an Antoph-class light cruiser, visually resembled a Hallas-class heavy freighter. The cause for confusion was simple, The Antophs had all been either destroyed in the Dilgar war, scrapped after it, or converted into merchantmen, no-one operated them as military units any more. Captain Dawson had an odd feeling and struggled to suppress it. They could detect numerous fighters being launched, all Falkosis, and the Dido was being lit up by fire control sensors. Before he could change his orders from firing warning shots to fire for effect, the first volley of railgun rounds left the Frigates weapons. a few moments later, as the shots went intentionally went wide, weapons fire slammed into the Dido. The Interceptors stopped some of the shots that were incoming, but the weapons fire was intense, and included a number of beam weapon shots that flat out ignored every effort to stop it. The Dido shuddered under repeated impacts from the Hunter. the Icon changed from an inoffensive icon signifying a merchantman, to a blazing red Icon marking an enemy warship. Dawson suspected that it might just be a Q-Ship doing its best to frighten off the human ships, but in under a second, the tactical display became a swathe of red. all the Brakiri ships were firing.

Earth Alliance and Brakiri ships exchanged fire. The Resha-Hunter was hit several times by the Dido as it corrected its fire, and missiles from the Ben-my-chree, Gypsy-moth and Cassandra all targeted the ship as it revealed its identity. Structural damage was slight, but a single light missile did sneak through and damage the Hunters engines. The humans had come a little too close, and the Dido and Ben-my-chree both took numerous hits heavily damaging both ships but not affecting their combat effectiveness.

Earth Alliance 0 - 0 Resha-Kar

Turn 3

Initiative: Earth Alliance

Someone messed up, someone really messed up, those are warships!

Light Brakiri Forces round the asteroids and fire into the Human fighters....

 The Brakiri Escorts rounded a small asteroid belt and fired their weapons into the human fighters as they accelerated towards the Brakiri capital ships. dozens of the Thunderbolts were smashed by weapons fire, and fierce dogfights commenced. The Resha-Buckler did its best to support the Brakiri pilots but they were heavily outnumbered. The Earth Alliance fighters launched swarms of missiles at the Resha-Venturer as they passed it their missiles blossomed fire as they hit the Antoph's armoured hull in a spectacular display but doing little real damage. The Iron Duke also opened fire at the Venturer but the shock of facing a force of warships and not merchantmen meant that the gunnery officer hadn't updated the targeting solution from warning shots, so the majority of the fire was well wide of the mark, with only a few shots hitting their target as the mistake was realised and corrected.

The EAS Dido and EAS Aeneas were in the thick of the fighting now though, and their shots were fired in all directions slamming into numerous Brakiri ships

...as the Brakiri fleet shreds the Earth Force vanguard

Fire from the Nelson was directed at the Resha-Boxer. These shots were well aimed, but the carriers Gravitic shields deflected all of the shots directed at it. Admiral Hayashi realised his error as the Trio of Antophs, and they had all now been confirmed as being older light cruisers, opened fire at his light units at close range. The EAS Dido had been damaged by the Hunters first volley, and now weapons fire smashed through the ship wrecking it completely. The Ben-my-chree and Gypsy-moth were also wrecked as they found themselves at extremely close range, and the EAS-Cassandra was lashed by fire from the Resha-Active having moved too close to the leftmost Brakiri light cruiser. the damage was light, but the Earth Force fleet had been mauled. Numerous Brakiri ships had been hit, but none of the damage was crippling, 

Earth Alliance 0 - 11 Resha-Kar

Turn 4

Initiative: Earth Alliance

The Brakiri Cruisers sped past the tumbling wrecks of the tumbling wrecks of the human ships, they wanted to get into position to hit as many ships as possible as hard as possible, and then speed past them. the Human ships were large, and very hard to turn, and they should be able to evade the humans, provided they could get past them.

The EAS Aeneas turned hard as the Brakiri ships passed it, their target was clear, they were all converging on the Nelson and Iron Duke. The pair of Novas were in their element, with numerous enemies all around them. Resha-Buckler directly ahead of the pair of ships took several hits despite its shields, The Resha-Venturer was raked from several sides, The fire from the Nova dreadnoughts being supplemented by shots from the Aeneas. the engines of the ship were wrecked, and the hull smashed in several places as the cascading fire demolished large parts of the ship. fires engulfed entire sections of the ship. The Nelson even managed to hit the Resha-Active, a highly accurate shot hitting one of the fins housing the Gravititic drive causing it to lose power. 
Human thunderbolts cleared the area of Brakiri fighters swiftly, leaving them with no fighter cover. they were powerless to intervene against the Brakiri cruisers just yet. As the Dreadnoughts tore the Venturer to pieces, the ship directed its fire, along with the Hunter, into the EAS Iron Duke. Pulsar fire, Grav cannons and the Beams mounted by the ships all pounded into the Dreadnought. the Hunters beam weapon sliced through the flank of the dreadnought and ruptured one of the ships reactors causing a catastrophic explosion. The damage spread aft as the 2 light cruisers kept up a steady fire. fragments of molten metal pattered off the ships as their weapons fired at each other. With a shudder, the Iron Duke lost all power, her engines reduced to a tangled mass of molten metal. The Venturers engines were also wrecked the ship unable to maneuver, but she still had a small amount of power remaining.

A fierce melee erupts

The EAS Nelson now came under fire, the hammerhead housing the the fighter bays receiving numerous hits from the ships all around it. Resha-Active responded to the hits to its engines from the Nelson by pouring fire into the Nova Dreadnoughts reaction engines, taking them all offline under a steady barrage.

The last Brakiri Fighters are dealt with

The Invincible took some fire, but the interceptors managed to deflect most of the fire, power was directed to the ships jump engines as she prepared to withdraw.

Earth Alliance 3 - 26 Resha-Kar

'Activate the jump engines, get us out of here, NOW!'

Conclusion

We ran out of time, but on the face of it it seems like a fairly convincing Brakiri win. I think the Earth Alliance could have turned it around in turns 5-6.
The Resha-Venturer was crippled and skeleton crewed, the Resha-Hunter was below half damage, all of my cruisers had taken engine damage. the Halikorta was damaged, a Brikorta was damaged, and the Earth Alliance had gotten fighter superiority and were behind the Brakiri ships. they could easily have leveraged their positioning advantage, and used it together with their fighters to cause significant damage to the Brakiri. and their nova 'might' have been able to survive another turn with a little luck.
Turn 5 would likely have seen the loss of 2 Antophs and 'maybe' the Nova, making it 20-31, and then the fighters could have gone to town on the smaller ships. If the Brakiri could get turned round and repair their engines they would have a chance, but without fighter support they would have been hard pressed.

That's not to say errors were not made. The EA committed its smaller ships too early, resulting in the loss of 3 of them for almost no return. The Novas were badly positioned on turn 3 which meant they could only use their forward guns. A more effective turn would have increased the firepower they put out from 16 to 44 shots.

The Brakiri also made a few unforced errors, my use of my fighters was poor, I could have gotten some more effective shooting on turn 2 had I been a touch more aggressive, and I wasted the Rakartas and one of the Brikortas for 3 out of the 4 turns

'Kalora dropped the report onto her desk. on the face of it this was a resounding victory. They had lost no capital ships, although it was likely the Venturer would be scrapped, their older Antophs had been somewhat effective which would reduce the corporations expenses and allow them to simply refit their Hollas' turning them back into warships. There would be interuptions to scheduled freight contracts unless a solution could be found, but that was a problem for someone else, not her.

The last 2 things were a bit more problematic. they had lost 37 of their 48 Falkosi fighters, and more concerning was the last entry: Captured 2x Nova, 1x Artemis, 2x Hermes...

Damn, the Earth Alliance are going to be pissed.....'