Third Battle of Khilsiek: A Call to arms campaign. Turn 6, part 1
Kalora clenched and unclenched her fists behind her back. Her eyes were fixed on the tactical display as it marked the dispositions of the two forces currently on a collision course. This would mark the largest engagement fought by the Brakiri Syndicracy since the end of the Shadow War at Coriana VI, and also the largest fought by the Brakiri alone since the Dilgar war. She had commanded smaller forces in skirmishes, but this was something else entirely.
'Director, we can confirm 11 capital and 6 escort ship signatures.' one of her staff reported. Icons updated with class information but ship names were unknown at this time with one exception, the EAS Thunderchild.
With Khilsiek now being once again in the hands of the Earth Alliance following the sudden withdrawal of the Narn Regime, Director Kalora, representing the Brakiri Resha-Kar Corporation, makes the decision to mount an attack on the forces around the planet before Earthforce can fortify their position and secure it for the Brakiri.
To achieve this, the Brakiri deploy a large force comprising the majority of the Brakiri heavy units with supporting elements, and they will be facing a significant force of Earthforce ships.
The Scenario rolled is Annihilation and will be fought at War level with 6 points apiece
The Brakiri
The force I am bringing is shaped to a large degree by what is on my fleet roster. I noticed that I had not used the signature Brakiri ship, the Avioki, very much, only one appearance in a 3 way encounter, and then at the end of it, so I had been spending my campaign RR on Avioki's, Kalivas and Batrados. For this encounter I was bringing 2 of each, leaving a single Avioki in my reserve since I have a second battle to fight this turn. These are backed up by my 2 War levelo ships, the Tashkat and Takata. The Tashkat is very agile for a ship of its priority level, but is held back by a slow loading beam and secondaries that aren't all that powerful. The Takata is great for mopping up fighters and weaker ships with its energy mines, but against larger ships, the mines rapidly lose effectiveness as they lack AP. They will likely not do a significant amount against the Omegas and Warlock I will be sure to face. I would rather take a second Tashkat since anti fighter cover can be provided by the Brokados combined with some Haliks who have a scary anti-fighter 16 when under the 'Intensify defensive fire!' order. Rapid response is a pair of Haltonas and finally, rounding out the force is a Brikorta for some additional fighters, a pair of Shakaras to hopefully scout priority targets and a Haltana for some disruption with its Grav shifters.
The eagle eyed among you will have noticed this puts me 1 raid point over the limit, which I didn't notice at the time. A suitable penalty will have to be considered.
Takata: Resha-Bombard
2x Avioki: Resha-Dreadnought Resha-Ultimate
2x Kaliva: Resha-Lancer, Resha-Balista
2x Batrado:, Resha-Transit, Resha-Brawler
2x Haltona: Resha-Defender, ReshaHammer
2x Halik: Resha-Warden, Resha-Inferno
1x Brokados: Resha-Emissary
2x Shakara: Resha-Vanguard, Resha-Spooky
1x Brikorta: Resha-Wasp
1x Haltana: Resha-Intransigent
Earth Alliance fleet
Like the Brakiri, the Earth Alliance are restricted in their ships by what is on their roster. The core of the fleet is certainly the Warlock and supporting Omegas. they have powerful beam weapons carry a significant fighter complement, and their interceptors make them tough targets for standard weaponry backing this up are a pair of Novas, 3 Hyperion-class and some supporting small ships. With an already impressive number of fighters, this is backed up with a Poseidon and an Avenger. This gives the Earth alliance, all told, 59 flights of fighters. They also have much better command than the Brakiri with a total of +4 to initiative rolls thanks to the Poseidon, dropping to +3 if the warlock is in charge, and +2 if the Avenger then has to take over. This compares very well with the Brakiri +1 thanks to the Brokados. The EA fleet has a satisfying number of ships with command.
Poseidon-class: EAS Mannanan Mal Cir.
Warlock-class: EAS Thunderchild.
Avenger-class: EAS Invincible.
3x Omega: EAS Valkyrie, EAS Furious, EAS Beowulf.
2x Nova, EAS Iron Duke, EAS Nelson.
3x Hyperion, EAS Atlas, EAS Anubis, EAS Taranis.
2x Olympus, EAS Styx, EAS Asgard.
2x Oracle, EAS Pithia, EAS Cassandra.
2x Artemis, EAS Dido, EAS Aeneas.
Deployment
Suprisingly the Earth Alliance lost the roll for deployment and thus deployed first. their fleet was deployed in a dispersed manner in an effort to minimise the effectiveness of the Takata's energy mines. The Brakiri took the opportunity to counter deploy and did so with their entire force deployed against the flank with the Poseidon.
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| View from the EA side, the Brakiri concentrate their ships on one flank |
Turn 1
The Brakiri force raced forwards while the earth alliance ships that were out of position turned and aimed to get their beams into action. The initial volleys from the Brakiri were punishing. Energy mines detonated between the EAS Mannanan Mal Cir and the Taranis, damaging both and Resha-Transit poured fire into the Hyperion as its heavy laser cannon fired into the Resha-Dreadnought for little effect before the Grav lances from the Kalivas tore the Hyperion to pieces, the powerful weapons causing extensive damage to the ships critical systems. |
| The Brakiri fleet surges forwards towards the Earth Alliance flank |
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| The EAS Taranis is the first casualty of the battle |
The fire had been fairly even up until now with roughly comparable damage inflicted by both sides, and then the Tashkat and Aviokis opened fire on the Earthforce Super carrier. Powerful beams carved through the ship, and left it in ruins. Damage control teams did their best, but only a single squadron of fighters was able to launch from the seriously damaged launch bays
Turn 2
With the all Brakiri ships armed with Graviton beams having fired them, and thus them being in their recharge cycle, the Brakiri closed with the damaged ships on the flank getting into pulsar range, The Defender, seriously damaged but not crippled, maneuvered to avoid action. |
| The fleets close as the Human fighters swarn towards the Brakiri fleet |
The Earth force ships continud to close with the Brakiri and were largely successful in getting their primary weapons into range. Fighter dogfights errupted all around, with the pair of Haliks giving the Brakiri the upper hand. scores of Star Furys were downed for no loss.The EAS Mannanan Mal Cir attracted fire again and was put out of action, leaving an unfortunate Hyperion, the EAS Atlas in front of the entire Brakiri fleet. The ship fired its weapons wildly hitting the Resha-Ultimate with pulse weapon fire, and its Heavy Laser cannon shot into the Tashkat, the Resha-Treasure, the ships armour and grav shields deflected the worst of the fire, and the Atlas' assault was cut short as fire from all directions blew the heavy cruiser to pieces. In response, the Resha-Wasp was hit catastrophically by one of the Omegas, with the ship being put out of action. the Resha-Hammer too was badly hit numerous times with the ships engines being disabled and extensive damage inflicted on its hull.
The Nelson too succumbed to fire with the Resha-Balista disabling the ship with its grav lance. Its sister ship the Resha-Lancer put an Olympus the EAS Styx, out of action.
With the Brakiri beams now recharged and the Earth Alliance main combat ships now in optimal range, the next turn would be carnage....
Unfortunately for us,the club was soon closing, so we only managed 2 turns, giving the Brakiri the win
Brakiri 21-2 Earth Alliance
Brakiri Victory
What Next?
At this stage its a clear Brakiri win, but what would have happened had the game continued?
Turn 3 would have been a punishing turn for both sides. The dispersed EA deployment and vulnerable poseideon had informed the Brakiri counter deployment. It had paid off with th elimination of the Poseiden, but that left the EA with a mere 48 flights of fighters to the Brakiri 12. weapons fire and anti-fighter had dealt with another 12 or so human fighter flights, but that left them with 'only' a 3-1 advantage.
The Takata was also going to be less useful turn 3 onwards, the fighter threat was much reduced, and the most important targets for the gravitic mines are very resistant to them, which leaves it down to the main line units.
The Tashkat was out of position, leaving 2 Aviokis, 2 Kalivas, a Batrado and a soon to be destroyed Haltona, to fight 3 Omegas, a Nova, Hyperion and Warlock. Advantage here goes to the Earth Alliance and the resulting fire exchange would probably result in losses for both sides. 1, possibly both Haltonas would be finished off, and Avioki/Kaliva would likely be destroyed by focused fire, and with their all round weapons damage put on numerous other brakiri ships. In return, EA losses would be an Artemis that was already badly damaged, an omega which would have been focus fired down, and either destroyed or badly damaged the hyperion or Nova.
Turn 4 would have seen this engagement continue. Advantage again would be with the Earth Alliance, Brakiri beams are slow loading which gives them a relatively potent alpha strike but they pay for this in lower damage output overall. The Tashkat would have likely gotten into action turn 4, and i could easily see another Omega go down. in return the EA would again be able to shoot in all directions and put their beams on to some really good targets and down another Avioki hull.
Turn 5 is where it gets hard to predict. The EA took some early losses but would make it back up, so a lot would depend on exactly how the dice went. an EA victory would be difficult given the early losses, but it would certainly be plausible. The Brakiri would still most likely have been victorious, but at a much steeper cost and it would have been a lot closer.
by turn 6 or so, I could see the scores be at least 36-20 to the Brakiri, more likely 36-30 when considering crippled ships. This would of course mean, the bad placement of the Poseidon during deployment would have been 'the' deciding factor.
Sorry we didn't manage a few more turns, it would have been quite the encounter.
I hope you have enjoyed this, and I will see you next time
Main Image: David Gian-Cursio. Brakiri ship by Nadab Goksu, Hyperion by Craig A. Clarkm Dilgar Cruiser (not shown) and Nebula by Matt Tarling
Miniature STL's by Tyrel Lohr
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