Grome v Earth Alliance. A Babylon 5 A Call to Arms Battle Report.

 

This weeks match was supposed to be another clash in our ongoing campaign. David, playing Earth Alliance wasn't able to make it. Instead we elected to play a one off match between the Grome and my Earth Alliance. I had contemplated taking the Vree but its been a while since I commanded Earthforce.
The Grome are an interesting race and have quite a unique flavour. 
Since there are several different lists available and scale the ships differently, the Grome ships being used do not correspond directly to the miniatures. Since Grome ships are all flying girder factories though, its not that hard to tell whats what.

The game will be a 5 point game at Battle level priority, and we will are playing the Annihilation scenario. this is to keep things simple.

Grome Autocracy Fleet

The Grome are a minor race in the League of Non Aligned Worlds and enjoy the distinction of being the least technologically advanced. They lack any sleek lines and their ships are more utilitarian than even the earth alliance.
In game terms, there are 2 sets of rules you can find online. For this game we are using the PDF 'The Grome Autocracy' from the Babylon 5 Wars website. There is also another set of rules that you can use. We weren't sure if either was 'official' so we used the set that looked the simplest.
As a faction they have a few special rules. The first is that their ships can never receive bulkhead hits. Any bulkhead hit is instead counted as a solid hit. the second is that rather than having anti-fighter and interceptors, they instead have flak cannons that can be used as either, but not both, in the same turn, with the added advantage that their interceptors are effective against beam and mini-beam weapons.

The Grome fleet, Pride of the Grome Autocracy

The fleet list is a little more restrictive than more developed races but there is still a bit of variety. For this game the Grome will be bringing a Pair of Morgata Warships as their heavy hitters. This battle level ship has an absolutely shocking amount of  forward firepower with up to 38 railgun shots of varying effectiveness able to hit ships in the front arc. the most powerful, the heavy railgun is does triple damage but is slow loading.
Backing these up are a pair of Groth Gunships. The Groth is in some ways a superior ship to the Earth Alliance Nova. It has good all round firepower, is faster, and isn't lumbering. It does lack any defences or fighters though  Rounding out the fleet are 3 Morstag Escort Frigates to deal with  EA fighters and a Morgat Heavy Frigate which is broadly similar to the Artemis in capability. To act as some initiative sinks there are 6 Telgar Defense frigates. The Telgar is a surprisingly effective looking ship, with turreted Railguns and a competitive defensive profile. Finally, 2 additional patrol choices of Regla flights to give 12 additional flights, and 16 total.

2x Morgata Warships
2x Groth Gunships
3x Morstag Escort Frigate
1x Morgat Heavy Frigate
6x Telgar Defense Frigates
12x Regla Flights

Earth Alliance Fleet

This was my first game with the Earth Alliance for quite some time. I had intended to play the faction in our latest campaign but David was more restricted in his collection than I am so I chose Brakiri instead. With no campaign game this week due to real life events, I was happy to use the Earth Alliance in a one off encounter. 

The Earth Alliance Task Force

The battle will be against Grome, and is at battle level, and out of the 3 basic lists available I decided to bring the 3rd Age mostly so I can use the Omega.
I took a pair of them. their main armament is long ranged and can pack a mighty punch. at the same time the ship has good short ranged firepower and brings its own fighter support. If the Omega has weaknesses they are relatively low on hit points mitigated somewhat by the respectable interceptors and the main beam is bore sighted on a Lumbering platform. this means the first few turns will be the most effective with this weapon. There is the rear mounted Laser cannon as well but its a less powerful weapon. Backing these up are a pair of Nova-class dreadnoughts. With fighter support and a staggering number of shots per ship they are one of the best value raid ships you can buy for any faction. My opponent, Ginge, was kind enough to let me use the Arctic to play test it and with that the core of the fleet was selected. giving incredible firepower and lots of fighters.
I picked a trio of Olympus class corvettes to help support the Omegas in the early game. Their long range missiles can be really effective at softening up ships with critical hits in the initial few turns. They   they are not nearly aqs effective in a brawl as the Artemis, but in a Battle priority match, An Artemis is just an easy kill. As initiative sinks I took a pair of Hermes, and finally, for distractions, I picked a pair of Hyperion Assault cruisers. They are a Raid level hull for a skirmish point and have a respectable number of shots. by placing them closer to the enemy in the first few turns they are more likely to be engaged, more likely to be damaged, but with their increased number of hits for their cost, unlikely to be killed. this means that in subsequent turns, my opponent will have to decide between shooting the damaged skirmish ships, or engaging fresh targets.
With that, we moved to set up.

2x Omega-class Destroyer
2x Nova-class Dreadnought
1x Arctic-class Heavy Cruiser
2x Hyperion-class Assault Cruiser
3x Olympus-Class Corvette
2x Hermes-class Transport

Deployment

The Earth Alliance won the initiative and forced the Grome to deploy first.

The Grome adopt a close formation

 

The deployment kept the ships together. Grome capital ships aren't particularly fast, but they are very well armed which means they want to be concentrated. Also, by deploying their larger ships forward and smaller ships behind, it means the large ships can start closer to the enemy, and the smaller, faster, ships can simply pass them on turn one and screen them from then on.

Earthforce counter deploy

In response, the Earth Alliance deployed on their extreme right. this would mean they would hopefully be able to take on the Grome fleet piecemeal and defeat them in detail. This was helped by the most powerful Grome ships being the farthest from the Earth Alliance. and they were also the slowest ships in their fleet. It should be turn 3-4 before they got into action. The Novas would act as a blocking force and, provided the smaller Grome ships closed first, be able to clear those out efficiently, and also provide a more tempting target than the Omegas. the rest of the fleet was there to support, with the Hyperions to act as a nice target to shoot, and the Arctic to attack from a different angle.

The Initial force dispositions

Turn 1

The battle got underway with both sides making their initial maneuvers. The Grome decided to close with the Earth Alliance. The Earth Alliance ships reduced their speed to keep the range open and the Omegas and EAS Arctic took aim at one of the Groth gunships. 

Earthforce gets in the first few hits, with the Grome declining to fire their long ranged weapons at the Hyperion

Long range beam fire smashed into the Groth but, despite solid hits, damage control teams managed to isolate damaged systems and reduce the impact of the damage. Further fire from the Olympus class corvettes' multi-warhead missiles impacted several smaller Grome ships, while some light return fire landed on one of the Hyperions. Both sides completed the turn by launching fighters with the Grome now having their entire complement on the field.

Turn 2

The Grome continued their advance towards the earth alliance ships keeping a close formation with the Telgar defense frigates placing themselves between the Grome capital ships and the Humans. The Hyperions Turned towards the Grome ships and entered the weapons envelope of quite a lot of them, and somewhat influenced the Grome dispositions. With the Omegas once again keeping the Groth gunship in their cross hairs, 

Grome Ships close, and a firefight errupts, the Hyperions bear the brunt of the Grome fire

Grome fire poured into the Hyperions quickly overwhelming the ships interceptors. Hundreds of railgun rounds chewed up the ships hull and left it a drifting wreck. the Grome systematically turned their attention towards the second Hyperion. Some miscommunication meant that a few of the Grome ships mistakenly engaged the Arctic instead, and while the second Hyperion was left severely damaged, it had survived the intense barrage, with the Arctic suffering only minor damage. Counter fire from the Earthforce ships combined with a missile barrage from some thunderbolts knocked out one of the Telgar frigates and crippled another.

Damage has been inflicted by both sides, the main event is yet to come

The Grome had gotten the best of the exchange so far, but this situation was reversed when the pair of Omegas opened fire on the already damaged Groth gunship. twin heavy lasers punched through the ships armour as if it was butter, the groth gunship was obliterated spectacularly. Debris smashed into scores of ships and fighters nearby causing serious damage to several of them. dozens of Regla fighters were destroyed, frigates and the second groth had weapons knocked offline and suffered damage to their engines*.

Turn 3

Earth Alliance fighters swarmed around the Grome ships as the 2 sides closed the distance to get their arsenals into range. The Olympus class corvettes being the exception and instead maneuvered to keep the range as open as possible.

A Close range brawl commences

The Earth Force pilots were shocked when the Morstag escort frigates directed their Flak cannons to anti-fighter mode, despite the human capital ships being incredibly close. Accurate fire punched most of the humans out of space or forced them to abort their attacks, scattering them, while the Reglas swarmed those fighters that were outside of the of the anti-fighter zone. Grome ships shot their fire into the crippled Hyperion, disabling the ship too, with the debris causing the fire from the Arctic to miss its mark.
The Grome proved to have quite accurate firing solutions on the Human ships as solid slugs of metal pounded into Earthforce, with the damaged Hyperion neutralised, the Grome turned their attention towards the Novas. They had started their own barrage of fire. Combined with shots from the Olympus class corvettes, the damaged heavy frigates were knocked out one, by one. fire from the Omegas knocked first one, and then a second Telgar out of action, and then the battle drew to its spectacular finale...

The Grome Morgatas concentrated their fire on to the closest nova, Heavy railgun slugs slashed through the ship and eviscerated its internal sup[ports, something gave out and explosions tore through the ship sending shrapnel into nearby ships. a Telgar was smashed to pieces as the Novas Hammerhead impacted into it, the second Nova also took damage but the superior armour of the Omegas spared them any significant damage. 

Massive damage is inflicted on both sides

Earthforce responded, the second Groth Gunship had been pounded by the Novas before the explosion, and now an Omega fired its main armament, this ship too exploded, debrish hitting several nearby Grome ships. A second beam smashed into one of the Morgatas causing extensive damage.

With that.... the engagement drew to a close. 

Earth Alliance 28 - 11 Grome

Earth Alliance Victory

Conclusions

We decided after the explosion fest that the Earthforce position was incredibly strong. the Grome could very likely have dealt more damage to the Earth Alliance, they still had both of their principal ships in action, but it would probably not have been enough to change the outcome. There was also the matter of getting some food to consider.

The key moment was a very lucky shot on turn 2. The Groth had been over-killed by enough to cause the ship to explode immediately, and with numerous Grome ships in close proximity, 7 of 9 Regla flights were destroyed and 7 other ships were caught in the blast and a total of 70-80 damage was inflicted on ships nearby.

Dispositions after clearing up all the destroyed ships, Earthforce has the clear advantage.

Beam weapons were very swingy, with them either causing no damage, or spiking magnificently, and the Grome fire tended towards 'more accurate than I would have liked' 

I made a few unforced errors, I could perhaps have kept the Hyperions a little further back on turn 2 rather than effectively losing both of them, and I could have been a little more aggressive with the Novas. I was only able to get them into action on one turn, and only using about half their potential firepower. Lumbering ships can be quite annoying to maneuver, its something i will have to work on.

My use of fighters was lackluster, with the Brakiri I am used to them being predominantly a defensive option rather than a strike force. deciding how to employ them against ships with Escort was very challenging. In the event the Grome anti-fighter fire was much more effective than anticipated due to some incredible dice rolling, but since the Grome have flak cannons, it left their ships without interceptors, which I capitalised on.

Overall, I think the Grome are a threat to be reckoned with. Its a good job thyeu don't have any scouts, if they did they could risk being overbearing in the volume and accuracy of their fire.

I hope you enjoyed this battlereport, next week we will hopefully be back to the campaign
Thanks to Ginge for stepping in at the last minute for a game
STL's are by Tyrel Lohr

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