Ambuscade. Brakiri v Earth Alliance. Call to Arms Campaign. Turn 6, part 2

In the previous encounter The Brakiri were able to drive off the Earth Alliance from the main planet of the Khilsiek system and inflict some serious damage. Now we conclude turn 6...

The majority of the quality Brakiri assets had been assembled by Fleet Director Kalora for the assault on the main planet. Acting quickly to prevent the Humans from establishing themselves she had left only a small force to defend the Resha-Kar holdings in the system. The Pak'ma'ra had not been very aggressive since their partially successful attack on a merchant convoy. They had destroyed or disabled all the merchant ships but had lost their entire force doing so. several of the merchant ships had been recovered and were in drydock currently alongside some of the Pak'ma'ra ships that had been captured.

The Pak'ma'ra briefly take the Jump Gate and with it trade into the system

Director Kalora had thought they would not be so bold again, but they surprised the brakiri picket forces when they briefly seized control of the systems jump gate and numerous of their ships had left, and others had arrived. It was probable that ores from the inner system mining facility were leaving and the ships arriving were either empty or carrying finished goods of some kind. 

The Brakiri had left a small force of Kabrik police ships and Riva super heavy fighters as a picket force at the Jump Gate. These ships would be sufficient to deal with any raiders or Khilsiek government forces and fast enough to evade anything more significant. The Pak'ma'ra arrival had forced these ships to avoid contact and they had withdrawn to a rendevous point to be joined by the relief force moving from the New Dawn shipyard. 

The Pak'ma'ra left the Jump gate almost as quickly as the had arrived leaving the Brakiri officers in a somewhat embarrassing position. The fleet continued towards the Jump gate and began intercepting transmissions from a fairly substantial encounter. With their only Electronic Intelligence ship being a very old Calorta with a 'not very good' crew, they failed to notice the Human ships, even as they monitored the withdrawal of the Pak'ma'ra ships. The Brakiri fleet secured from action stations...

After the loss of the Jump Gate the Earth Alliance had assigned a small force to monitor the Jump gate and take it back if the opportunity presented itself. Conditions presented themselves when the bulk of the Brakiri force concentrated at the New Dawn shipyard headed down into the inner system leaving only a small police force at the gate, a minor incursion by the Pak'ma'ra drew out a portion of the Brakiri fleet. They failed to notice the Earth Alliance ships which gave the Earthforce Admiral the opportunity for an......

Ambush!!

The Brakiri force approaches the Jump gate to chase the Pak'ma'ra away

The Brakiri force is composed of every ship that Resha-Kar had at the New Dawn shipyard that was ready for an immediate departure. In a campaign environment if you are playing multiple games during a turn you can only use each ship on your roster in one of those games. The previous battle took a lot of forces and that left me with a.... sub optimal selection of ships to choose from. I decided I wanted to take some ships I'd not used until that point for a little bit of experience, and to try them out. thats why there wasa lot of Ikorta hulls.

1x Avioki. Resha-Sword
1x Haltona. Resha-Cleaver
1x Brokados. Resha-Caretaker
2x Brikorta. Resha-Boxer, Resha-Nimble
2x Blitsi. Resha-Sprinter, Resha-Thunder
1x Calorta. Resha-Monitor
1x Halikorta. Resha-Shield
1x Drikorta. Resha-Cannonade
2x Rakarta. Resha-Lookout, Resha-Picket
4x Kabrik. Resha-Bailiff, Resha-Sherrif, Resha-Judge, Resha-Justice
6x Riva (2 patrol choices)

Turn 1 The Trap is Sprung

The Earth Alliance surprise the Brakiri with only a handful of the ships being able to react

Alarms sounded accross the Brakiri fleet as a large force of Earth Alliance ships appeared on sensors in very close proximity. They were accelerating hard and were on top of the Brakiri fleet before most of the crews could react. Three Kabriks, their crews used to having to be alert were able to react, as was the Resha-Sword, the massive Avioki turning into the attack.
Human fighters swarmed over a trio of Rivas as the Brakiri Combat air patrol responded and tried to intercept the Starfurys

The Earthforce ships opened fire sending a withering barrage into numerous Brakiri ships whose crews were still rushing to their action stations. The Resha-Picket was the first ship to come under fire, missiles from a pair of Hermes slammed into the Rakarta. pulse battery fire from the EAS Ra added to the barrage putting the ship out of action almost immediately. The Resha-Justice, a small Kabrik was hit by fire from multiple directions and suffered numerous hull breaches, the crew suffering massive casualties as the interior of the ship was exposed to vacuum. The Resha-Judge managed to fire a couple of shots into the EAS Ben-my-chree before it too was wrecked by weapons fire. Pulse batteries fired into the Resha-Thunder from all directions, the Blitsi-class heavy escort, just back from an extensive refit was torn to pieces. the hull disintegrated and railgun fire from the Artemis-class sister ships, the EAS Diana and Apollo shattered the ships reactor sending debris scything out in all directions, several fighters were caught in the blast including one of the Rivas that had, in an incredible display of skill, managed to outmaneuver and destroy several Starfurys.

A pair of Heavy lasers crashed into the Resha-Sword, carving massive gouges out of the massive Avioki's hull. Systems were smashed but the ship had been built well and back ups re-routed functions leaving the ship venting atmosphere but operating at full effectiveness. The Sword opened fire, its twin beams meeting insde the EAS Vagabond. both beams sliced through the ships jump engine which had been charged up to allow the ship to quickly escape, in an instant the Vagabond was erased and an energy wave impacted of the Hermes' around it. Pulsar fire from the Sword fired at as many targets as possible, the EAS Ben-my-chree was hit multiple times, and then the Resha-Bailiff and Sheriff finished the ship off.

Earth Alliance 11-4 Brakiri 

Turn 2

As weapons fire slashed through the formation the crews of the Brakiri ships reached their action stations. The humans had caused a lot of damage, but the surprise had worn out and the Brakiri ships started to react to the attack. The Human force was smaller than the Brakiri one but had caused significant damage so they executed their pre-planned maneuver and turned hard to port

The Brakiri struggle to bring weapons to bear...

The Brakiri ships who had started to turn into the Human attack found themselves unable to turn hard enough. only their side weapon batteries could be brought to bear. Brakiri Falkosi fighters were not so limited and they streamed towards the Earth Alliance fighters. At the same time the Pikatos heavy, and Riva super heavy fighters closed in on the EAS Ra. As the Brakiri ships strained to turn, only the Resha-Sprinter, a Blitsi class whose sister ship had just been destroyed successfully redirected power to the ships thrusters. 

As the Earth Alliance force breaks away after their ambush

A long range shot from the Graviton Beam smashed into the EAS-Ra as the Brakiri fighters closed in on the ship weapons pounded the Human cruiser but it proved to be remarkably resilient as weapons from every brakiri ship in range poured their fire into the Heavy cruiser. The Ra emerged from the maelstrom battered. Her engines damaged and several anti-fighter emplacements had been destroyed.

EAS Ra is the target of a lot of fire while vicious dogfights see casualties on both sides

The Earth Alliance were not without reply though. weapons fire plastered the asteroid belt where the Rivas were emerging from the dust. Targeting systems were spoofed by the debris in the area and only a single Riva was hit despite a deluge of fire into the area. Starfurys destroyed a further Riva before the Brakiri Falkosi's could come to its rescue. The Brakiri did manage to scatter the majority of the Human fighter formations through sheer numbers. With that ever so brief exchange of fire, the Human force was speeding away..

Earth Alliance 13-4 Brakiri 

Turn 3

The Brakiri Fleet continued their turn to bring the Earth Alliance force into their primary weapon arcs, the Resha-Sword was the only ship that managed to do it as the Human ships diverted all their power to their engines and accelerated away hard. With the Brakiri fleet now maneuvering they had the force advantage. Most of the Human ships had opened a insurmountable lead but Resha-Sword managed to get a parting shot off against the EAS Overlord as the ship opened the distance scoring an impressive hit with the powerful graviton Beam but not doing anything to slow the ship down

The Earthforce ships race away but the EAS Ra is caught by the Brakiri fighters

Having suffered engine damage, the EAS Ra trailed behind the Human force, and the Pikatos fighters were able to catch up to the ship. Falkosis intercepted the only remaining Earth Force fighters and the Pikatos' were able to close to point blank range due to damage to the Ra's point defence weapons. The heavy armaments tore through the Hyperion as the fighters strafed the heavy cruiser. Escape pods spewed from the ship as the primary systems went dead one by one.

With the rest of the earth force out of range, and no prospect of the Brakiri catching them the rest of the Earth Alliance force successfully disengaged. The Brakiri had secured victory, but only just.

Earth Alliance 13-14 Brakiri 

Brakiri Victory

Conclusion

Ambush is a really hard mission for the defender to win. The attacker can enter the field where they want, win the initiative, and then have essentially a free turn to do what they like. The Defender is going to be all pointing in the same way, so an attack from the rear is possible. The Defender can use fighters on turn 1, but otherwise its luck whether they can activate any of their ships and use them normally.

The Earth Alliance deployed poorly. Their Hermes' should have been further to the EA left, to the rear of the Brakiri. even given that, It was luck that allowed the Avioki to act normally turn 1.
Secondly, the Hyperions should not have targeted the Avioki with their beams. It represented the toughest ship in the Brakiri fleet and while its demise would have secured the win, it was incredibly unlikely to occur. Instead the Hyperions should have shot one of the Brakiri Ikorta hulls. If nothing else had changed they would have killed it and it would be a 14-16 victory to the EA.

Finally, and possibly the decisive factor were the Hits to the EAS Ra's engines. the ship suffered a result of -2 to its speed. If the hits had disabled or degraded any other systems on the ship, then it would have outrun the Pikatos heavy fighters, been outside of any other weapons range, and escaped destruction.

Even with those 2 errors and an unfortunate critical hit result, the Earth alliance very nearly secured the win.

On the Brakiri side, my fleet selection was poorer than it ought to have been. Taking the Kabriks and Rivas was asking for trouble. The Kabrik is very good value for its points but is easy to kill. The Rivas are hard hitting, but again, easy to kill and I had 2 more Blitsi's available to include in the game. Swapping the Kabrik's and Rivas for a pair of Blitsi would have presented some tougher targets and given me some more ships that would be agile enough to turn to get their weapons into range and arc. The Ikorta hulled ships didn't contribute much although my carriers did manage to get all their fighters away.

My deployment could also have been a little better, The Rivas and Kabriks should probably have been a bit further into the formation rather than on the edges. The attacker can come in from either side of the board after all.

Current Holdings

Earth Alliance: 
Verdant planet, with additional resources

Ice Comet
Ship Graveyard

Brakiri Syndicracy: 
Jump Gate
Mining Outpost
Construction Yard
Medium Gas Giant

Industrial Planet

Pak'ma'ra: 

Mining Outpost
Agrarian World

Trade Route (This Turn Only)

Narn Regime: 
Withdrawn

Minbari

Unclaimed

Barren Planet (Unexplored)

Turn 6 has seen the Earth Alliance take a pounding. They have lost a lot of ships, but their roster, while reduced, is still formidable. The Brakiri have not escaped unscathed either. while many of their ships have not been destroyed they have been severely damaged so its a hard decision between repairing them using RR or them withdrawing for a full repair. The Pak'ma'ra are sitting pretty though, they have not had much in the way of action and their fleet has only been growing as they avoid action and accumulate resources. Can the Pak'ma'ra take the initiative and land bodyblows to the Brakiri and Earth Alliance and push them out of the system? Please join us for turn 7 as the Battle for Khilsiek continues.

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

Miniature STL's by Tyrel Lohr
Metal miniatures by Mongoose games
Miniatures painted by me and David
Photography by me.
Thanks to David and Ginge