Border Incursion. Klingon Empire versus The United Federation of Planets. Babylon 5 Wars

Admirals log, stardate 50103.1. The Klingon Empire continues to launch probing attacks into the Archanis sector. Losses of civilian shipping has continued to escalate. I have decided to concentrate the ships under my command rather than disperse them. Starfleet intelligence has indicated there are several squadrons of Klingon capital ships that are active in the area but it has been hard to pin down their location due to their cloaking devices and the losses of several monitoring posts. Star fleet has established a temporary rally point in orbit of HD 328974. My Squadron is proceeding there to establish control before refugee ships and stray freighters arrive.

Our last game saw the Federation successfully fight off the Hydrans. Today we continued our mission to become familiar with the rules for Babylon 5 Wars and we will once again be using the Star Trek Conversion by Tyrel Lohr which you can find here.

The belligerents today are the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets. We elected not to use the Klingon cloaking devices. keeping track of cloaked ships seems to be very tricky and hard to keep track of. This probably gives a small advantage in points terms to the UFP but its a small price to pay for keeping things simpler.
Mistakes were made though throughout the game, most notably we were unsure how to use the multiple fire modes of the Medium and heavy phasers. post game we decided that they would probably work like the Laser/Pulse arrays as mounted on the Babylon 5 Nova Dreadnought, so please bear that in mind during the report. Finally we also decided to limit Photon torpedoes to Max X = 10 and change the heavy photons to Max X=10 + 15 to limit the power of torpedoes.

United Federation of Planets.

Galaxy-class: USS Amendiares
Nebula-class: USS Cunningham
Nova-class:  USS Xenakis
Intrepid-class: (ELINT upgrade) USS Songbird

Total 3000 points

From experiences learned in numerous previous battles when taking lots of ships it gets quite hard to keep track of things and can markedly slow the game down. I resolved therefore to take fewer, and thus larger, ships and wanting to get a bit more experience with ELINT ships take a few of those. Heading up the force are the Galaxy class and Nebula class. The galaxy is limited deployment meaning I could take only the one. its a powerful ship with very good long range firepower. Its a little sluggish though. The Nebula is quite similar though with significantly weaker weapons, although it does have more short ranged ability. Of significance are the Advanced photon torpedo launchers that allow both ships to launch a barrage of torpedoes. Backing these up are an Intrepid class with the ELINT upgrade, and a Nova class. The Intrepid is surprisingly well armed and it too has advanced photon torpedo launchers, while the Nova is more of an escort ship with some ELINT thrown in since it has poor sensors in comparison to the competition.

Klingon Empire

Negh'var: IKS Suv'chu

Vor'cha: IKS Not'qa
Vor'cha: IKS Qa'rol

Total 3050 points

The Klingon fleet my opponent brought is definitely intimidating. The Neghvar is tough and has serious firepower at its disposal. This comes at the expense of anything remotely resembling maneuverability. The same cannot be said for the Vor'chas. They are fast, reasonably tough, and hit hard, but not as hard as the Neghvar. most worrying of all is the number of Mega Disruptors. They have fairly restricted arcs of fire, but they can cause immense damage to a ship. Their only disadvantage is that they can only fire in piercing mode. One needs to be thankful for small mercies.

Set up and Deployment

The planet dominates the center of the battle space

The battlespace has a planet in the middle surrounded by various asteroids. We decided to use the terrain rules for this game so in addition to blocking line of sight the planet is a gas giant with an atmospheric density of 1, 2 and 3 depending on where a ship is, and the asteroids are standard asteroids so will do speed x D10 damage to any ship moving through them. The 2 fleets deployed in opposite corners with the planet and asteroids in between obstructing line of sight. 

Turns 1&2

The large gas giant that dominated the area provided cover to both forces as they approached each other. The Klingons kept a tight formation as they maneuvered, seeking a decisive strike against any federation ship that was unfortunate to find itself in their sights.

Klingon ships advance together

The Federation ships spread their forces out more seeking to gain a positional advantage. 

The Nebula Class USS Cunningham together with the Intredid Class USS Songbird flanked rapidly to the federation right, while the Federation Flagship The Galaxy Class USS Amendiares and smaller Nova class USS Xenakis maneuvered to the left. The USS Xenakis darted ahead in an attempt to outflank the Klingons with the huge Galaxy class being far more sedentary. Sensors on both sides were doing their best to Jam the sensors of their adversaries. The range at this point was too long to warrant any speculative fire so both the federation and the Klingons held their nerve.

The Federation Splits their formation

Turn 3

The USS Cunningham and USS Songbird came out of the shadow of the Gas giant directly ahead of the Klingons and directed all their sensor power to securing the best possibly firing solutions on the IKS Not'qa, The powerful Vor'cha and other Klingon ships locking on to them in turn. The USS Amendiares also locked on to the IKS Not'qa as it emerged from behind the planet from the other direction and launched its own torpedoes. The smaller USS Xenakis by this time had managed to outflank the Klingons and used its advanced sensor suite to improve the firing solution of the Galaxy class ship. 

Federation ships launch full spreads of torpedoes

The With Torpedoes now in flight the Klingons came about to face the USS Cunningham and USS Songbird. The powerful Klingon Disruptors fully charged and they would have an excellent firing solution just as soon as they could...

USS Cunningham and USS Songbird dart behind the gas giant 

Diverting as much power to their engines as possible, the USS Cunningham and USS Songbird darted back behind the Gas Ginat to avoid the Klingon weapon fire. A pair of heavy torpedoes impacted the USS Cunninghams shields but did no damage to the ship. Defensive fire erupted from the IKS Not'qa as numerous torpedoes closed with it and of the 15 photon torpedoes launched 'only' 13 survived to hit the klingon attack cruiser. The ships forward shields collapsed as 9 torpedoes from the USS Cunningham and USS Songbird impacted and numerous torpedoes destroyed most of the ships forward armament.. Torpedoes from the USS Amendiares impacted the starboard shields and these too collapsed under the onslaught. The IKS Not'qa survived the onslaught, heavily damaged but still able to maneuver, but with a much reduced offensive punch when the USS Amendiares opened fire with its heavy phasers. 

The IKS Not'qa meets its end

The already damaged Vor'cha could not withstand the combination of Torpedo and Phaser fire and the IKS Not'qa broke up. Its reactor successfully shutting down so their wasn't a fiery conflagration

Turn 4

The small Nova-class USS Xenakis launched a pair of torpedoes at the second Vor'cha, the IKS Qa'rol as the Klingons diverted all their available power to their engines and turned rapidly towards the Galaxy class ship as they secured a firm sensor lock. The USS Amendiares, seeing the risk blanketed the area with ECM and darted behind a large asteroid to get out of the arc of fire. 

The USS Amendiares uses asteroids as cover as the Klingons close in

With the threat to the flagship avoided for now, the USS Cunningham and USS Songbird again emerged from the shadow of the planet and the IKS Qa'rol was subjected to a barrage of fire from numerous directions. The Photon Torpedoes from the USS Xenakis struck the Vor'cha but the forward shields held, while the powerful Nebula and supporting fire from the Intrepid penetrated the ships port shielding and destroyed one of the ships disruptor batteries while phaser fire from the USS Xenakis battered the Vorchas starboard shields but they held. The Klingons for their part declined to fire as the USS Amendiares would have to emerge from behind the asteroid, and when it did they would be ready.

Turn 5

Unable to dump velocity, the USS Amendiares emerged from behind the asteroid with the IKS Qa'rol and the Larger IKS Suv'chu bearing down on it. They had diverted all available power to their sensors, so despite the best efforts the Galaxy-class ship was met with a withering hail of fire. The Klingons also launched their torpedoes at the USS Cunningham as they passed, the targeting solution was not great and the Nebula suffered only a pair of hits to its shields which stopped any damage to the ship.
The USS Amendiares did not fare as well, the ships starboard shields buckled and then collapsed and shots impacted on the hull Wrecking a substantial portion of the large saucer section. 

The USS Amendiares is singled out by the Klingons as the USS Songbird tries to draw fire

The Neghvars Mega disruptor scored a devastating hit on the Galaxy class ship punching a hole clean through the ship. shattering parts of the saucer and passing clean through the engineering section. Thankfully the ship held together with only the tracktor beam emitters being destroyed. The Powerful ECM being emitted from the USS Amendiares managed to disrupt the weapons lock of the IKS Qa'rol sufficiently that the Vor'chas own mega disruptor narrowly missed its target. 

Fire from the USS Cunningham, USS Xenakis and USS Songbird hammered into the IKS Qa'rol in response, with a few weaker shots from the badly damaged Galaxy class, and the ships shields began to collapse as phasers began to hit the ships hull damaging the engines and warp nacelle

Turn 6

The USS Cunningham was moving too fast to maneuver efficiently and the Nebula found itself in a poor position as it was now ahead of the Klingon ships as they turned rapidly. Thankfully the Klingon weapons were recharging before launching another barrage so The USS Cunningham was able to fire into the front of the IKS Qa'rol without being subjected to return fire. The USS Xenakis also took the opportunity to close to point blank range and fire into the Vorcha. The ships shields completely collapsed under the continued assault. The USS Amendiares, for its part managed to maneuver itself out of harms way as the Klingons turned towards a new target and added to the fire.

The IKS Qa'rol is destroyed by sustained fire from multiple directions

Under such a sustained assault the Vor'cha could not survive, the entire forward section was wrecked, as was the starboard side. With multiple hull breaches and the ship losing power the IKS Qa'rol began to tumble. with no other option and the ship unable to fight any longer, those that could made their way to the escape pods.

Turns 7 and 8

The Battle now lost, the remaining ship, the Neghvar IKS Suv'chu turned away and disengaged with the federation ships not able to prevent it.

Losses and Damage

Klingon Empire
2x Vor'cha Attack Cruiser Destroyed

Federation
1x Galaxy class Heavy damage

Federation Victory

Conclusion

I was a bit intimidated by the firepower of the Klingon ships and this proved to be somewhat justified as they were very unlucky not to outright destroy the Galaxy class ship when they opened up on it. Victory came down to denying the Klingons good shots for as long as possible while chipping away at them. The Torpedoes were devastating when they connected and that led to the destruction of one of the Vor'chas but my initial maneuvers led to the Nebula and Intrepid having a lot of speed to dump and that meant I couldn't really make maximum use of them in the second half of the battle. The lack of any rear firing topedoes on the nebula is something i should have taken account of.
The Nova was a Key ship. while the ELINT capabilities are limited by the low sensor rating, its comparitive maneuverability compared to the Klingons meant i could quite easily keep it out of harms way and use its full sensors offensively while other ships could then be a bit more conservative with how they employed their sensors.
Overall though, unless you are facing an alpha strike, the ships proved to be remarkably resilient. 13 torpedoes were not enough to finish a Vor'cha which was a bit of a shock. It takes concentrated and sustained fire to take down ships reliably.
Next time we will be using cloaks, lets see how that works out

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

Main Image by SFC3 
Federation STL's by Captain Mojo and Meatloafr
Klingon STL's - I don't know, sorry

Ship Control sheets

IKS Qa'rol

IKS Not'qa

USS Amendiares