Peace Negotiations. Klingon Empire V United Federation of Planets 2293, B5W, Star Trek

 

Captains log, Stardate 9523.4. I have rendezvoused with The USS Hansen, Dorsett and Olzewski in the Deneb system, Melona sector. The whole crew is on edge, we have received two messages from Starfleet Command in the past few weeks. The first was to inform us of the destruction of Praxis, one of the Klingon Empires primary sources of Dilithium, and the second more recent message warned us to expect Klingon incursions across the border following the death, no the assassination, of the Klingon Chancellor. I find it hard to believe that Captain Kirk would be involved in something like that but regardless of whether he is involved or not, Starfleet Command has warned all commands that the chance of an incursion by one of the Klingon houses is now very likely in order to strengthen their position within the empire during Negotiations. The crew remains at a high level of readiness, and we are maintaining a constant watch over the Neutral zone.

Following our last battle we decided to lower the points of our fleets to 2000 each, we will again be using the Star Trek conversions for B5W by Tyrel Lohr which you can find here, and have set the In service date to 2290 so as not to bring any ships that were too powerful. In this game we will be using the cloaking rules for the Klingons, and since I will be trying to find cloaked ships, I will be using Hangar operations. Cloaked ships use rules similar to those used by mines when attempting to detect them, just assigning sensors to cloak detection rather than mine detection. First published in Showdowns 1 what is not clear is whether there is a minimum range of detection. For mines this is easy since they blow up, but for cloaked ships we agreed that if a shuttle is at range 0 and using its sensors to search for cloaks, they will detect them.
Other things we changed from the core conversion is we set the X to 10 for both photon torpedoes and Heavy photon photon torpedoes.

United Federation of Planets

Excelsior Command Cruiser: USS Hansen

Constitution-Class: USS Kabuki
Miranda: USS Dorsett
Soyuz-class: USS Olzewski

Total: 1990 points

2000 points is not much compared to battles we have had before but it will make the ships more manageable and in smaller numbers. With the In Service date of 2290 this meant I could just about about field the Excelsior Command Cruiser with its debut of 2290. I definitely wanted to bring some ELINT to the field and my options were limited to the Oberth and the Soyuz. Of those the Soyuz is the most expensive but overall a much better choice. The only real strength of the Soyuz is that you can take as many of them as you want. To round out the fleet I decided on a Constitution class and a Miranda class. The constitution class is a very well rounded design, while the Miranda is more agile, a bit more poorly armed and a lot more fragile. This left me 10 points under and while I considered taking a Pair of Excelsiors instead of the Constitution and Excelsior Command ship I flet that having half my ships with really low initiative was a bad idea. I had wanted to put some Wilkersons into my force but alas, i don't have any yet. They would be an excellent counter to anything fast and nasty.

Klingon Empire, House of Gig'ne

C8 Dreadnought: IKS TaD'moh

K'tinga: IKS Ghaklor
K'vort: IKS Hegh'ta
K'vort: IKS K'ratak

Total: 1915 points

The Klingons have a few more limitations on them than the federation in that they have a smaller pool of ships to draw from in the first place and a large number of them are from later periods than 2290. Heading up the fleet, and the only ship that will lack a cloaking device is a C8 Dreadnought. The ship is reasonably well protected, has good all round firepower and has some long range teeth in the form of a pair of heavy torpedo tubes. Backing this ship up are a K'tinga and a pair of K'vorts. The K'Tinga is supposed to be the equal of the Constitution class but is weaker by a noticeable margin. the only advantages it seems to have are the presence of a cloaking device, it being marginally harder to hit from the side, and the slightly higher Initiative. The K'vorts are a different beast entirely. slightly worse armed, they are much faster, and tougher to boot.

Battlefield and Deployment

Forces Deploy

Once again we are utilising a green hex map (its a nebula, honest) and the terrain has been set up as indicated. The asteroids are all asteroid belts, so will cause d6x speed damage if one enters them, and the planet is... a planet. it has a density 1 atmosphere and then.. splat. There is one large asteroid belt and some smaller singletons.
The federation Deployed moving at speed 5, While the Klingon Empire did the same.

Turns 1-3

The Klingon formation closes with the Federation force

The Forces belonging to House Gig'ne entered dropped out of warp as they entered the Deneb system. The Federation patrol was an ideal target for destruction. The Federation ships turned towards the Klingon formation as the K'Tinga and Both K'vorts cloaked leaving only a single Klingon ship on sensors

Before 3 of the ships cloak

The Klingon Dreadnought the IKS TaD'moh turned away from the Federation formation as a flurry of torpedoes were launched. The USS Hansen, Kabuki and Dorsett all fired their torpedoes at extreme range with the USS Olzewski providing some additional telemetry. Jamming from the IKS TaD'moh saw several torpedoes go wide, but several hit their mark. The Dreadnoughts port shields weakened significantly, and one torpedo struck the ships hull causing some damage to the structure.

The federation ships fan out to try to catch the Cloaked Klingon ships

The IKS TaD'moh then dove into the cover of the M-Class planet in the system, and with no other ships on sensors, the Federation ships started to launch their shuttles in order to better detect any anomalies caused by cloaked ships. The federation Ships moved towards the last known coordinates of the now cloaked Klingons as their shuttles fanned out.

The USS Olzewski detects one of the cloaked Klingon K'vorts

It was not a shuttle that managed to detect one of the Klingon ships but the USS Olzewski. The Soyuz class ship caught one of the K'Vorts on sensors as it moved rapidly to outflank the federation ships. Before anything else could be done the ship was far away and despite its position, speed and heading being transmitted to the other federation ships none of them were in a position to do anything.

Turn 4.

The IKS TaD'moh rounded the M-class planet and as it did so the IKS Ghaklor, the K'tinga class cruiser de-cloaked in just ahead of the dreadnought. Simultaneously the two K'vorts, the IKS Hegh'ta and IKS K'ratak also de-cloaked behind the federation ships. They were trying to catch them in a pincer.

Klingon ships de-cloak as torpedoes are launched by both sides

As the Klingons de-cloaked the USS Kabuki and USS Dorsett both launched their torpedoes, The IKS Ghaklor was the target of 3 torpedoes, and the IKS Hegh'ta the target of a pair with The USS Dorsett found itself able to launch from all its torpedo tubes. She also found herself the target of numerous weapons locks as did all the federation ships. It wasn't clear exactly where the main Klingon focus would be but only the IKS Ghaklor was able to launch a torpedo at the USS Kabuki. The Constitution class ships course was taking it closer to both the K'tinga and the Dreadnought the IKS TaD'moh that was close behind.

The USS Dorsett dives for cover....

The K'vorts attempted to intercept the USS Dorsett, but the Miranda class cruiser accelerated to put the large asteroid belt between the pair of K'vorts and herself. Shielding the light cruiser from any weapons fire. The K'Vorts were not so fortunate, the torpedoes launched by the USS Dorsett crashed into the IKS Hegh'ta but the K'vorts shields held. The IKS Ghaklor was not quite as fortunate. a Trio of torpedoes crashed into the K'tingas forward shields collapsing them almost immediately, followed instantly by medium phaser fire from the USS Hansen, USS Kabuki and USS Olzewski.

...As the USS Kabuki and USS Hansen Down the IKS Ghaklor

The Klingon cruiser managed to get off a few shots of its own at the USS Kabuki, but the Constitution class ship shrugged the hits off its shields before the K'tinga  came to pieces under the concentrated fire.

Turn 5

The Largest federation ship, the Excelsior class USS Hansen had built up a lot of velocity and would have to transit around the M-class planet before it could bleed off some of its velocity. This misjudgement meant that, for a time, the fight would be in the Klingons favour. The IKS TaD'moh closed rapidly with the USS Kabuki and raked the ship with fire as the constitution class ship turned away. A pair of torpedoes from the Dreadnought crashed into the Constitution class ships shields as batteries of medium disruptors opened fire. The shields faltered under the barrage and several shots were able to penetrate the shields and impact the hull. The Ships port nacelle began to vent plasma under the barrage.

The USS Kabuki and USS Olzewski are hammered by the Klingons

The K'vorts concentrated their fire on the USS Olzewski and the small light cruiser suffered some significant damage as the IKS Hegh'ta and the IKS K'ratak both fired their weapons at the Soyuz class ship. Torpedo hits partially collapsed the ships shields while Disruptor blasts hammered into the ships hull. The Soyuz was fortunate to survive the onslaught. The return fire from the Federation was highly inaccurate and only a few shots managed to score any hits, and none were able to overcome the Klingons shields.

Turn 6

The USS Olzewski accelerated hard to get out of range of the Klingons, blanketting space in electromagnetic noise as it did so. The USS Kabuki Turned hard as the ship diverted all possible power to her engines, in order to present some, as yet, undamaged shields. The Dreadnought IKS TaD'moh  targeted the Miranda-class cruiser and launched a barrage of shots into the ship but most went wide and those that hit barely dented the ships shields.

The Klingons close on the federation ships

The federation fire was again, almost as ineffective, the majority of the shots again going wide. Those that did manage to hit their mark were concentrated on the IKS Hegh'ta. The K'vorts shields held, but they were steadily being depleted.

Turn 7

Torpedoes were launched as the USS Dorsett and USS Kabuki clashed with the three Klingon ships. The USS Olzewski was out of harms way as it used the M-Class planet for cover, and the USS Hansen was not yet back in rangen. The USS Dorsett performed a high energy turn and put a large asteroid between itself and the advancing IKS TaD'moh, frustrating the dreadnoughts efforts to bring her under fire. She could not avoid the pair of K'Vorts though, and the IKS Hegh'ta and IKS K'ratak fired into the small cruiser, the IKS K'ratak from point blank range. The Light cruisers shields began to collapse and multiple hits were scored on the Miranda class' hull knocking several weapons offline.

Deadly accurate fire from the USS Kabuki and USS Dorsett causes serious damage to the IKS Hegh'ta

The Federation crews had gotten their act together, and the sporadic and innacurate fire from the past few turns was replaced by a devastating barrage of fire into the IKS Hegh'ta. The K'vort was hit by shots from both the USS Dorsett that was under heavy fire herself, and the USS Kabuki. The Constitution class cruiser had put herself  to the port aft of the K'vort and started a sustained fire that caused some damage to the ships engines but also major damage to the ships structure. The USS Dorsett too was able to land a few shots onto the hull of the K'vort and the IKS Hegh'ta lost one of its medium disruptor cannons.

With the end of turn 7 we decided to call our game there. The USS Hansen would soon be rejoining the fray, and that would push the balance well towards the Federation. The Klingons at this juncture elect to disengage (it was late, we wanted to get food)

Losses and Damage

Federation

Soyuz - Heavy damage
Miranda _ Light Damage
Constitution - Light Damage

Klingons
K'tinga - Destroyed
K'vort - Moderate damage
C8 Dreadnought - Light damage

Federation Victory

Conclusion

There were some serious misplays during this game. The Excelsior found itself totally removed from the fight for the 3 decisive turns, and despite the fact the Federation was able to scrape a victory this was only down to some key moves to put ships outside of any weapons fire, and poor rolling on the part of the Klingons.
Klingon ships continue to be underwhelming. The K'Tinga in particular dropped very quickly to the federation fire. This may be because I was using the Soyuz to make my shots more accurate and concentrated my fire, but it did seem to happen somewhat rapidly.
The K'vorts proved to be much tougher, their shields and positioning kept them from feeling the worst of the federation firepower although at the end one of them was in a desperate situation with all the shields near to collapse.
On the Federation side, the Soyuz and Miranda had both taken extensive damage from what you could consider light fire, they, like the K'Tinga are perhaps a little too fragile. In the case of the Miranda and Soyuz they are at least very quick.

As to the cloaking, its a lot of effort, and on our hex map seems fairly easy to shut down. The shuttles were next to useless as the Capital ships sensors had far more reach, and they were a pain to keep track of. Eventually I just took them off the board.

Some serious work needs to be done to get the balance right I think, I can attribute some of my success to ability and luck, but not all.

Anyway, we had fun, and the game has certainly sparked much discussion between us as to how to 'fix' klingons (or the UFP) to make them more o par with each other

If you like what I do, please consider supporting me on Patreon or buy me a nice cup of Coffee.

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

Main picture is a screenshot from ST:The Motion Picture. Property of Paramount Pictures
STL's by Captain Mojo

Ship Control Sheets

USS Dorsett

USS Kabuki

USS Olzewski

IKS Hegh'ta

IKS Ghaklor

IKS TaD'moh