Battle For Khilsiek: It Begins. A Call to Arms Campaign. Turns 1-3

Lieutenant Peters was the officer of the watch on board the EAS Arctic and watched with satisfaction as the Hakudo Maru, a Cotten class tender, deployed the last of its cargo of orbital defence satellites at its designated coordinates. There were still tests to be conducted, but once they were done, they could leave this system and head back to Beta 9. It had become something of a black hole for Earthforce over the past few months. There was a brutal civil war ongoing, and their forces had been involved in numerous skirmishes with the Brakiri. 20 of their ships had been either lost or so heavily damaged they would have to be scrapped. severe though these losses were, the Brakiri losses had been much worse. Naval Intelligence had attributed the uptick in raider activity to the Resha-Kar corporation and Earthforce had assigned a powerful force to patrol nearby systems and hunt them down. Dozens of small ships, mostly converted merchantmen had been captured or destroyed. There had been some setbacks of course, Resha-Kar seemed to have some competent paramilitary forces at their disposal and had inflicted some embarrassing losses, mostly older ships on their final deployments.

It had been quiet for the past month though, which had given them time to deploy numerous satellites around the main inhabited planet. The indigenous population were quite unusual, and shore leave had not been granted so the whole crew was anxious to get back to Earth Alliance space.

'Sir, I'm picking up an energy spike approximately eighty thousand kilometers from our position, it looks like a jump point.' announced the sensor operator. 'confirmed, two jump points opening, multiple ships entering normal space'

'Sound Action Stations and get us under way' Lieutenant Peters ordered.

He looked at the sensor data coming in. They were too far away for visual identification, but the sensor readings and their emissions were unmistakable.

'This can't be right' he said as the ships opened fire on the satellites.

The Narn Regime had entered the conflict

Battle for Khilsiek

    This is a 4-5 player campaign using mongoose games A Call to Arms ruleset. Battles are being fought to gain control over the Khilsiek System. The protagonists of this story are the Earth Alliance, the Brakiri Resha-Kar Corporation, the Pak'ma'ra, and making a late appearance, the Narn Regime. There have also been sightings of Minbari ships in the area so they may be making an appearance.

    Once the initial turns are over and objectives in the system are all claimed we will be determining the initiative of the various factions, determining who is fighting whom, and then the combatants will have 4 weeks to arrange, fight and then report on their battles. Once the last report has been received, we will move to the next turn. Depending on how quickly games are played we could progress quite quickly.

Campaign Turn 1

    Several Narn scout ships had been in the Khilsiek system for a number of weeks collecting information on the dispositions of the various forces. Once the Earth Alliance started to deploy fixed defences around Khilsiek-A-IV the Regime decided to act and quickly assembled an expeditionary force. The opening of numerous jump points caught everyone by surprise as a pair of G'Quan class heavy cruisers and numerous other ships emerged into normal space and quickly neutralised the orbital satelites that had been put in place. 

Earthforce ships around Khilsiek-A-IV withdraw as the Narn arrive and open fire on the planets defences

Watching this occur was the EAS Arctic and a pair of escorts. They were powerless to intervene lacking the firepower to threaten the Narn force, and they withdrew from orbit after broadcasting an all ships alert, in the clear, to all Earthforce ships in the system to rendezvous at point Bravo if possible just as the Narn Assault ships started landing shuttles packed with troops at strategic locations on the surface of Khilsiek-A-IV.

Someone, probably the Narn Regime was jamming the StellarCom frequencies preventing anyone from sending alerts outside the system. Intra-system communication using old fashioned radio waves was still possible and the Brakiri, in the form of the Resha-Kar Corporation ships at the primary mining hub at the Khilsiek-A-VI asteroid belt intercepted the Earthforce alert. There were a dozen large Brakiri ships present at the primary hub. It was impossible upon cursory examination to determine exactly what classes the ships were. Brakiri doctrine, a consequence of government policy and the predominant racial philosophy, meant that their war ships used the same hulls as their merchant ships so it was very difficult to know beforehand whether any given Brakiri ship was heavily armed or carrying a heavy cargo. Many raiders prefered not to try, and the large number of the ships present had served to discourage the Earthforce ships from trying their luck.

Brakiri 'merchant ships' seize control of one of the mining outposts

Upon the receipt of the alert, the Brakiri sent their own message announcing their intent to protect their mining concerns in the system from any agrerssors, before one of the larger ships opened a Jump point and left the system.

Earthforce ships across the system, some of them hovering around the group of Brakiri ships, all broke off their assignments as they received the alert. Dozens of ships began accelerating hard for point Bravo, the Jump gate, to secure it either for a relief force, or to allow any Earth ships that lacked a Jump engine of their own to leave Khilsiek without having to tax the juimp engines of  the large human warships.

Shocked by the loss of life they were witnessing in the broadcasts they were receiving from Khilsiek-A-IV, the Gentle beings announced that they would be protecting the miners at Khilsiek-A-II, the inner system mining belt, where they were currently trading for as many minerals as their ships could carry.

Campaign Turn 2

The battle for the main populated world in the system was over very quickly. The Khilsiekians had received a fairly substantial number of advanced weapons and craft from the Earth Alliance, but they had been suffering constant losses fighting the Brakiri sponsored rebels, and what was at the homeworld was swept away. Resistance stopped, but the senior government figures melted into the population. The Narn hopes for a rapid resolution had been dealt a blow.
The Narn wasted no time though, and swiftly moved to seize their secondary objective, the Ship graveyard around the innermost planet of the system. The narn were still somewhat behind the other major races technologically, despite the tech transfers from the ISA, and the Kha'Ri were eager to acquire any and all advanced technology they could find.

The Brakiri force in the outer asteroid belt moved to the New Dawn shipyard where they were joined by a dozen other Brakiri ships all jumping into the system, new arrivals from Khilsiek-B, or Retaria as it was called by the Brakiri.

The EAS Arctic and Hakudo Maru had been unable to rendezvous at point Bravo and had instead headed for the third planet. There were currently a few survey teams in orbit and there had been some initial mineral explorations conducted but the presence of carnivorous mega fauna had slowed progress. they found themselves being joined by a fairly substantial number of smaller civilian ships eager to leave the system as various warships danced around each other in a ballet that could at any point turn lethal.

The Pak'ma'ra sent a large number of their ships from the inner asteroid belt to the second inhabited world. Orbital mechanics meant that it was closer to the second planet currently than it was to the third, and again the Gentle beings announced they would be protecting sentients.

Campaign Turn 3

The Arctic, Hakudo Maru, and dozens of civilian ships jumped out of the system and set course for Beta 9, the closest human world. they wer replaced by the bulk of Force Z as it divided its strength between retaining control over the Jump gate and Khilsiek-A-III. After receiving a detailed survey report on Fates End, General Stark dispatched a squadron of ships to secure it.

The Earthforce ships assigned to protect the Jump gate observed as dozens of Pak'ma'ra ships used it to enter and leave the system. the majority of the ships were carrying a small amount of trade goods but the majority of their cargo was humanitarian aid. The Narn regime had been seizing every civilian vessel they could catch and the supply situation in numerous locations was worsening, but not yet deperate.

The Khilsiek-A-VII gas giant had a small but growing refining facility in orbit. from there ships would leave to skim the atmosphere and extract hydrogen to be processed for the Deuterium used for fusion applications. The facility was built and run by the Resha-Kar corporation, but was owned and protected by the Khilsiekian rebels. It supplied the outer belt, and the rebels located there, with fuel for their Resha-Kar supplied ships.
This made it an attractive target for the Narn regime. they were still recovering from their war with the centauri and their logistics train was not of the highest quality. Prolonged operations would require a supply of fuel, so the already established facilities would be a major asset.
The Resha-Kar corporation was as aware of the significance of the facility as the Narn were, and when 2 squadrons of ships were seen moving towards the Gas giant, they would be met by a Brakiri force with instructions to 'aggressively discourage Narn Interference in Resha-Kar affairs'

Clash over the Giant.

This was a 5 point skirmish level encounter. The mission was Space Superiority, the Narn were the defenders and the Brakiri the attackers. This was due to the Narn winning the initiative in the turn and selecting the gas giant as their target, and the Brakiri choosing to intervene.

Our Narn player was a late entrant, and will be using my Narn ships for the campaign, which means i have to finish painting them. Mike is an experienced wargamer and this is his first game of ACTA. I suggested we play a few practice games, but he was happy to just jump straight in to the first combat encounter of the campaign.

Narn Regime

2x Rothan-class Plasma Destroyer, Na'Drath, Tol'Drath
1x Ka'Tok-class Battle Destroyer, G'Tok
1x Thentor-class Torpedo Frigate. Tol'Nar'eth
4x Sko'Kov-class Torpedo Cutter, Ta'Rakas, G'Goran, Na'Kor-Na-Toc, T'Goran
6x Frazi-class Heavy Fighter

Skirmish games tend to have a much simpler selection of ships than larger games. For this encounter the Narn brought a pair of Rothans, they have a very punchy forward armament, a Ka'Tok for the very powerful forward beams (for skirmish level) and then a Thentor for the long range torpedo armament. this mixed squadron was all backed up by a squadron of Sho'Kov's to be able to retain the initiative advantage. they are not great ships in and of themselves, but they are 2 for 1 patrol point, they are reasonably tough (for their points) and they have a decent range on their primary weapon

The Brakiri

 

2x Blitsi-class Heavy Escort. Resha-Sprinter, Resha-Thunder
1x Ikorta-class Light Assault Cruiser. Resha-Bearer
1x Brikorta-class Light Carrier. Resha-Boxer
2x Rakarta-class Patrol Frigate. Resha-Lookout, Resha-Picket
24x Falkosi-class Interceptor

Facing the Narn we have the Brakiri. The Blitsi's are very good ships fast and agile, and they are a much more reasonable ship to face than the Haltana, Backing them up are an Ikorta, If i get the chance I will be trying to board the Narn ships, a Brikorta for the fighter cover. being able to support ships and give them interceptor is a really strong ability.
Finally I have a pair of Rakartas to give me a little bit in the way of Initiative sinks, and they are quite resilient for Patrol choices, but fall short of patrol ships fielded by other races.

The Battle

Sho'Kov's screen the Narn fleet from the Brakiri

The Narn force detected the Brakiri who were attempting to use the Gas Giants rings to mask their approach and deployed their lighter ships, the Sho'Kovs ahead of the larger ships in  the formation. The Brakiri realised they had been detected and the boxer launched the rest of its fighters. the bearer took an advanced position and sent a challenge to the Narn ships

This is the Resha-Bearer to the Narn Regime ships approaching my position. The facilities around this planet are the property of the Brakiri Syndicracy and under our protection. Withdraw your ships immediately or we will fire on you.

 

The Resha-Bearer (top center) is fired upon by the Narn Regime ships

The response was immediate, the Tol'Nar'Eth ripple fired its Ion torpedoes, with the G'Goran adding to the fire, but the shots were all deflected by the Bearers shields. Actions, not words, would decide who would control the gas giant.

With the bearer under fire, the 2 forces closed with one another. Sprinter and Thunder closing with the Narn ships and opening fire. They concentrated their firepower onto one of the Rothan-class ships, the Tol'Drath. The fire was accurate and several of the ships weapons were knocked offline.

The Narn Screen proves to be incredibly resilient as they attract lots of fire

Fire criss-crossed space. and few ships were spared damage. On the Narn side, the Tol'Drath Tol'Drath and the Sho'kovs, G'Goran and Ta'Rakas were hit and damaged.
On the Brakiri side, both Blitsi's were hit several times, but the Resha-bearer took the brunt of the Narn fire, an ion torpedo smashing the central Damage control station.

The Brakiri gain the upper hand, but only just

The two forces exchanged Brutal close range fire as they passed each other. The Tol'Drath, the lead ship from the perspective of the Brakiri was subjected to a sustained barrage as ships passed it one at a time. Armour plate was stripped away and hits smashed through the internals of the ships disabling vital systems. The fire from the Tol'Drath slowed and then ceased all together, the Brakiri switching their fire to the G'Tok, some lucky hits temporarily disabling the ships engines.
The Brakiri were badly mauled as well, The Resha-Bearer miraculously surviving a deluge of fire, and the Resh-Thunder being hit numerous times, one impact caused numerous secondary explosions.

The Brakiri had come off better in the exchange, and as they passed through the Gas-Giants rings, the Narn used the opportunity to disengae, The Brakiri with seriously damaged ships did not pursue, they satisfied themselves instead with launching assault shuttles and seizing control of the wreck of the Tol'Drath

Brakiri 13-0 Narn

Losses:

Narn
1x Rothan, Destroyed
1x Ka'tok, Crippled
1x Thentur, Light damage
2xSho'kov, heavy damage, 1 light damage.
6x Frazi

Brakiri
1x Blitsi, heavy damage (Withdrawn for full repairs)
1x Blitsi, light damage
1x Ikorta, heavy damage (Withdrawn for full repairs)
12x Falkosi

With the Battle concluded, Turn 3 of the campaign is over and the standings are as follows:

Current standings

Earth Alliance: 79RR
Jump Gate 

Verdant planet, with additional resources (3RR total)

Ice Comet

Brakiri Syndicracy: 103RR
Mining Outpost
Construction Yard
Medium Gas Giant

Pak'ma'ra: 95RR

Mining Outpost
Agrarian World

Narn Regime: 90RR
Ship Graveyard
Industrial Planet

Next time we will see how the factions spend their points. what reinforcements do they request? Then there will be a flurry of fighting as the factions vie for resources and control of the system.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief summary, and i will see you next time

STL's by Tyrel Lohr
Miniatures painted by me
Photography by me
Thanks to all players in the campaign, Mike, David and Ginge.

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