BFK: Commerce raiding A Call to Arms campaign. Turn 5.

    Repair crews worked quickly to repair the damage to the Resha-Bombard. It had received a number of hits in the engagement with Earthforce but thankfully the combination of the ships gravitic shields and advanced composite hull plating had absorbed the worst of the damage. Two more ships had been withdrawn from the theater of operations for extensive repairs, while the Resha-Inexorable was currently in the New Dawn shipyard being stripped of valuable parts before it would be scrapped entirely. Alongside the Inexorable was a huge Earthforce ship, or what had been one. Now it was a new addition to their allied navy. It would likely be months before the Nova-class Dreadnought was repaired sufficiently to be put into service. if it had been a decision for Director Kalora, she would have immediately scrapped the obsolete ship for parts to sell on the black market. 

    She stretched her arms and legs as she listened to the last of the situation reports, this one from the Resha-Vanguard. She sat bolt upright when the ship director reported the Narn fleet that had been in system for a month had withdrawn....

    Last turn saw an escalation of hostilities between the various factions with three encounters taking place. Two of them small and one fairly major. Minor losses were inflicted on the various fleets but these were all easily replaceable. The Brakiri withdrew several ships and reinforcements arrived in the form of a pair of Batrado armed merchants, and a Kaliva-class lance cruiser. There was also a Haltana to replace the one that had been lost.

    The Narn fleet withdrew from the campaign due to Mike moving away from the area, and this left the Ship Graveyard unclaimed.
The Earth Alliance immediately moved in to take control. Neither the Pak'ma'ra nor the Brakiri decided to intervene. The Brakiri instead decided to capitalise on controlling the entire outer system and their control of the trade route, while the Pak'ma'ra elected to once again attack the mining outpost to wrest control of it from Resha-Kar, this time with a more substantial force. They were quite fortunate in their timing, as a small force of Pak'ma'ra was able to intercept a Brakiri convoy of merchant ships under heavy escort. they elected to attack....

Commerce Raiding

The mission was Convoy Duty at Raid level. The Pak'ma'ra would therefore have 3 points and Brakiri 5, and there would be 6 civilian freighters. We elected to use the vanilla freighters to keep things simple rather than any race specific ones. It would also make book keeping a lot easier. 

The mission looks to be a very challenging one for the attacker. They do have the initiative being able to enter tha battlefield wherever they choose and on a turn they choose, but they have to inflict enough damage to the defending fleet and then escape before the defender can bring their superior numbers to bear. The Freighters are easy targets for the attackers since they move in the end phase rather than the movement phase, and their durability could be likened to cardboard. The attacker will need to kill all 6 transports at this level, and withdraw their forces intact to score a win since while the defender will not get VP's for holding the field, they will get them for any freighters that survie, and attacking ships that withdraw or are destroyed.

Brakiri fleet

Convoy Duty is a mission where the attackers have the ability to decide when and where they will strike. the defender has to make their way across the battlefield. With freighters having a speed of 4, 6 if they use 'all power to engines' it means they will spend at least 9 turns on the battlefield before they can move off the board edge.
With the Attackers also able to move on from either board edge, on a turn of their choosing . it means the defender needs a force that can react quickly while defending the transports. This means ships with at least 2 turns, and it also means i will need a carrier for fighters to support the freighters and act as Interceptors. This dictated my first choices massively. The Brokados was there for the fighters, and to give me the ability to recycle my fighters when they got destroyed, and I took a pair of Haltonas for some hitting power. They have the turning required to quickly respond to any attack. My next choice was somewhat whimsical, I've not been fielding the Brakiri ships we see from the TV series, the Avioki, and while I wasn't prepared to drop 2 points into one, I did decide to take a Batrado. Its probably a very bad choice given its lumbering, and has very little combat capability, but I decided to take it nontheless. Finally, I elected for a pair of Rakartas and a Blitsi to round out the fleet.

1x Brokados. Resha-Caretaker
1x Batrado. Resha-Transit
2x Haltana. Resha-Defender, Resha-Hammer 
1x Blitsi. Resha-Sprinter 
2x Rakarta. Resha-Lookout Resha-Watcher
6x Merchants, 2x Hakara, 1 Tra'shu'li 1x Arcismus. 1x Lias 1x Jonkur

Pak'ma'ra fleet

The Pak'ma'ra fleet is much simpler with only 3 points to spend, and a much more restricted fleet roster (something we are working on) limiting the fleet quite substantially. The Pak'ma'ra are bringing a Halik and 4 Ikortas. The Ikortas have a mixed armament of heavy plasma cannons and plasma torpedoes that are incredibly hard hitting, and the Halik has a quite terrifying forward armament, which has been improved by one of the Pak'ma'ra free refits from 8 shots to 10. Its a small fleet but has the hitting power and range to punch out the freighters with comparative ease.

Pak'ma'ra fleet
4x Ikorta
1x Halik

Turns 1-4

The Brakiri convoy in close formation

The Brakiri convoy was travelling towards the jump gate. The slow merchant ships were outnunbered by their escorts with the huge form of the Batrado marking the center of the formation. The progress was steady and the small escorting ships fanned out to increase the detection range of the formations sensors as they transited through the asteroid belt.

The ships fan out to give better coverage against any attacks

Turn 5

Director, sensors are detecting a force of ships rapidly closing on our position... Signatures are consistent with our ships, they aren't responding to hails... weapons are hot!

The Pak'ma'ra launch their attack as the escorts turn to intercept them

The appearance of the small formation of ships did not immediately raise any major concerns. They were all Brakiri designs and they hadn't made any aggressive moves. It quickly became apparent that something might be amiss when the ships did not respond to hails, and then they changed course and accelerated suddenly. The Brakiri ships were at a high level of readiness already given the hostilities taking place in the system, so they were immediately able to respond. Escorting ships turned rapidly to face the now definitively hostile ships and attempted to interpose themselves between the merchant ships and these raiders.

Torpedo fire spat out from the Ikortas and it was now possible to positively identify these attackers as Pak'ma'ra. They were ignoring the escorting Brakiri war ships instead being intent upon the merchant ships. Torpedoes crashed into the Dilgar built Jonkur blasting huge holes straight through the lightly armoured hull. Heavy plasma cannon fire finished the ship off easily and left the ship a hollow shell tumblig through the dark of space.

Missiles too impacted the Arcismus. Damage to the ship itself was minor but a pair of torpedoes smashed through the crew living spaces killing everyone on board.

The Pak'ma'ra Halik opened fire on one of the Hakaras, a flight of Falkosi's had managed to reach the ship and intercepted some of the fire, but more got through as the fighters were scattered and the ship took heavy damage to its engines.

A pair of freighters are rapidly destroyed

The Brakiri ships were slower than hoped for in responding, the Pak'ma'ra coming in behind their formation. Resha-Transit, the huge armed merchantman proved to be unusually agile as it turned far more rapidly than one would have expected, and the Resha-Hammer was able to bring it's main weapon to bear on the attacking Halik. A sustained burst from the Graviton Beam sliced into the Pak'ma'ra ship, wrecking several of the ships weapons and devastating the engineering section. The ships propulsion faltered as the engines lost power. the ships hull glowed from the impact. the beam had cut entirely through the ships hull for a full third of the ships length.

Turn 6

The stricken Pak'ma'ra Halik turned sharply in an attempt to evade the Brakiri escort ships but with the massive damage its engines had sustained the ship handled poorly and lacked the acceleration to put any appreciable distance between it and the ships closing. The first to arrive was a full squadron of Pikatos Heavy fighters. their heavy armament chewed up the rear of the Halik, effortlessly turning to scrap even more of the ships engines. The fighters broke away as the Resha-Sprinter directed its full armament into the halik. The Gravitic beam penetrated the severely damaged aft section of the ship and knocked out the primary and secondary fire control computers, mains power, the primary gravitic propulsion core as well as the CIC. The Plasma webs that didn't lose power lost their ability to detect incoming fire, and the Blitsi completed the work as the Graviton Pulsars and cannons finished the ship off.
 

 A third freighter is eliminated, but disaster strikes as the Pak'ma'ra Halik is destroyed

Brakiri Falkosis scrambled to reach the surviving merchant vessels and provide some cover for them as the Pak'ma'ra Ikortas committed to the attack. they concentrated their weapons fire on the Trashuli. the escorting fighters were overwhelmed and the highly accurate fire perforated the ships hull and started a runaway reactor overload when the safety interlocks were either severed or disabled. 

Fire from the Ikortas starboard batteries caused minor damage to the Transit, Defender and Hammer.

Heavy fire came flying in to hit the Ikortas, and the engines of one of them were heavily damaged but overall, the defensive plasma webs of the pakmara ships deflected the worst of the fire.

Turn 7

The Trashulis reactor overloaded and the ship was torn to pieces as the fusion bottle fractured. The Ikortas turned in to the Brakiri formation. Missiles slashed through space tearing into one of the Hakaras and crippling the ship, and plasma cannon fire raked the Watcher, the Small patrol ship unable to avoid the fire was pummeled heavily but was able to maintain its speed and heading and poured its return fire into the Pak'ma'ra ships.

As the Brakiri escorts begin to bring their weapons to bear, the Pak'ma'ra press their attack

The Hammer once again fired its main weapon, and one of the Ikortas vanished in a blinding flashshowering surrounding ships in debris. The Pak'ma'ra ships were now surrounded with the Brakiri escorts closing. escape at this point looked doubtful.

Turns 8-10

Damage starts to accumulate rapidly, but the Pak'ma'ra are undeterred in their attack

The Pak'ma'ra pressed their attack. Their assigned mission was to prevent the merchant ships from leaving the system, and this is what they were committed to doing.
The Resha-Watcher was wrecked by fire from the Ikortas, and a combination of Torpedo and plasma cannon fire destroyed both of the seriously damaged Hakaras, and then crippled the Lias In return, 2 more Ikortas were destroyed, their broken hulls spewing flames and hull fragments as they raced through space.

The final freighter struggles to escape as the Pak'ma'ra Ikorta chases it down

Only one Ikorta had survived to this point and the Brakiri Escorts had the range. The Ikorta accelerated as hard as it could... If it could just get out of range it would be able to deal with the last merchantman, the seriously damaged Lias. The Resha-Defender ended the ships desperate attempt with a deluge of fire. Too much fire as it turned out, the Ikorta was shattered, its hull turning into grapeshot as the Haltonas fire caused the ship to disintegrate. the hull fragments slammed into the Lias, wrecking the ship entirely.

The Final Ikorta is destroyed, but the blast takes the last Brakiri freighter with it.

With that, the engagement was over. The Pak'ma'ra had eliminated all 6 merchant ships. at the cost of their entire fleet.

Pakmara 15-30 Brakiri
Brakiri Victory

Conclusion

    The Pak'ma'ra attack had been successful in that they had been able to cripple or destroy all the Brakiri merchant ships as well as one of the escorts. The cost was their entire force. The Brakiri quickly moved to secure the wrecked ships but only the Arcisumus was able to be recovered. The damage to the ship had been minor but the entire crew had been killed. The rest of the ships, The Rakarta, 4 merchants and the Pak'ma'ra attackers were quickly stripped of anything that was valuable and easy to remove, and then weapon fire finished the job.

    The Earth Alliance flotilla found the ship graveyard devoid of any Narn presence. The unusual energy field was still present but it was now possible to reach Khilsiek-A-I without being adversely affected. The Narn Regime had removed something, but exactly what was a mystery.

New Strategic Objective Added:

Khilsiek-A-I
Barren Planet (0RR) - Unexplored 

The Narn did something before they left and now this small planet can be reached without being crippled by the unusual energy field

Current Holdings

Earth Alliance: 
Industrial Planet

Verdant planet, with additional resources

Ice Comet
Ship Graveyard

Brakiri Syndicracy: 
Jump Gate
Mining Outpost
Construction Yard
Medium Gas Giant
Trade Route (This Turn Only)

Pak'ma'ra: 

Mining Outpost
Agrarian World

Narn Regime: 
Withdrawn

Minbari


    With everything resolved, we are now moving on to turn 6 and will see what the future holds.
I hope you have enjoyed this report. If you have any suggestions or would like to see anything different, please do not hesitate to contact me.

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thanks for reading, and I will see you next time.

Miniature STL's by Tyrel Lohr
Resin miniatures painted by me and Ginge