Territorial Expansion: Grome Autocracy versus Drazi Freehold, an ACTA Battle report

 

The Drakh attack on Earth came as a shock to all the members of the ISA and prompted the Earth Alliance to withdraw Task force Z from the Khilsiek system after ambushing a Brakiri patrol.

The Brakiri and Pak'ma'ra immediately agreed to a ceasefire but the Khilsiek civil war continued.

The ceasefire has largely held but with the ISA forces otherwise occupied in their attempt to find the Drakh and a cure for their plague this means that their eyes are no longer as intently focused on the ISA members themselves.

The Drazi, Always a belligerent race have started to send small raiding parties against the weaker of their neighbours in order to seize territory and resources. The Grome too have decided to expand beyond their home system and establish additional off world settlements and sent out small task forces to lay claim to whatever they can...

This is my first outing with the Drazi and we elected to play a Raid level game. The mission selected was Annihilation and was therefore at 5 points.

Drazi Freehold

4x Sunhawk

2x Guardhawk
2x Solarhawk
1x Jumphawk
1x Darkhawk
2x Strikebird
2x Sleekhawk

The Drazi are one of the weaker fleets in ACTA but do have a very generous selection of low priority ships with a full spectrum of abilities, more than any other faction in fact. This is a good thing because Drazi really need to outnumber their opponents, because in addition to being relatively weakly armed, they have the additional hindrance of the majority of their weapons being bore sighted. This battle will certainly be a challenge. To complicate matters the Grome Flak cannons work against beams, and their Railguns will on the whole have greater range then the whatever I bring. Drazi ships are also not particularly tough although dodge is something of a wildcard in that if you are lucky you can avoid a lot of fire, and if not you are doomed.
On the fleet selection I decided to pick a little of everything and totally avoid anything above Skirmish level. The Firehawk looks to be a little underwhelming and to try to mitigate the abundance of bore sighted weapons I wanted to get as many ships on the table so at least some of them could fire each turn. The standout Drazi ship for me is the Sleekbird. It's short ranged but is a Skirmish level hull at Patrol level, and has a breaching pod. I also had to take some Guardhawks as the Drazi have a very very tough time bringing any fighters and it would provide at least some defence against any Grome fighters although I am not overly concerned about them as they are weakly armed. I was tempted by the Warbird as its one of the better ships the Drazi have but elected to take a pair of Strikebirds instead. They carry a Sky Serpent which is heavily armed and would allow me to extend the range of the Guardhawks. I'm not expecting very much from them though, Sky serpents are really really terrible. Rounding out my selection is a bit of everything with the exception of the Eyehawk. the Grome don't have stealth and my weapons are either Beam or twin-linked, neither of which benefit from a scouting ship

Grome Autocracy

Groth Gunship
Gralac Heavy Carrier
4x Telgar Defense Frigate
4x Morgat Heavy Frigate

This is the second time the Grome have appeared in one of my battle reports, in the first they were quite roughly handled by the Earth Alliance. The Grome are an interesting faction being incredibly low tech with a narrow selection of weapons. The weapons they do have are very effective and have suprisngly long range. They do have a number of weaknesses though. Firstly they do not take bulkhead hits, they count as solid hits instead so they are less resilient than you might expect. Secondly they are equipped with flak cannons which can be used as either anti fighter or Interceptors, but not both on the same turn. Its probably not going to be a concern in this game as the Drazi have a dearth of fighters. Flak cannons have an added advantage in that they can also be used against Beam and Mini beam weapons but at reduced effectiveness.

The fleet is headed up by a Groth Gunship. This is very well armed ship that outguns and out ranges the Earth Alliance Nova Dreadnought comfortably. It is also quite quick and agile for a ship of its considerable firepower. Unfortunately the ship is simply a gun battery and has no defensive capabilities, and carries no fighters. For the fighters the Gralac is present, it can lauch its full complement of 10 Regla fighter flights in a single turn and brings command as a bonus. It sacrifices most of the Groth Gunships weapons to do so.
Backing these up are 4 of the Morgat Heavy Frigate. This is an incredibly good ship and can give an Artemis a run for its money in terms of overall effectiveness with good all round firepower, excellent maneuverability and a respectable toughness.
Finally the fleet is rounded out by 4 Telgar Defence Frigates. These are small, relatively tough ships, with exceptional speed and a very useful turret mounted weapon.

Deployment

The Battlefield had only a smattering of terrain, and all located at the periphery of the battlefield, The Grome lost the Initiative to deploy and deployed their forces centrally, while the Drazi counter deployed in 2 main groups, one on each flank of the Grome with the Sleekhawks in the centre

The fleets deploy to face each other

Turn 1

The Drazi approached the Grome force in orbit of a small gas giant. Zukan (admiral)Tubakar ordered his forces to deploy in a pincer and attack the Grome from multiple directions. and the force immediately split. The Grome began to get under way to meet them, bright plumes of propelant erupting from their engines to give them a surprising turn of speed. 

The Drazi move to envelop the Grome

With the extended range, only the Drazi Darkhawk was able to engage the enemy and it fired a flurry of missiles at the only target not protected by a Flak cannons, the Groth Gunship. The extended range meant that only a pair of the missiles found their marks and they caused very little real damage.

Turn 2

With the range closing, the Drazi elect to strike launching themselves at the rear of the Grome formation. The Sleekbirds acting as something of a distraction as they closed in on one of the Morgat Heavy Frigates. The formation on the Drazi right focussed their weapons onto the rearmost Morgat and the ship was cut to pieces by the weight of fire while the 2 Sleekhawks, at point blank range unloaded their fire into a second Morgat causing some damage but leaving the ship operational. One of the Grome Telgar Defence Frigates was also hit but only received minor damage, the flak cannons stopping the bulk of the fire.

Drazi Ships engage the rear of the Grome force

The Drazi did not escape retribution, the rear batteries of the Gralac opened fire and tore through the Sunhawk positioned at the rear of the Grome formation adding to the damage the Regla fighters had done and the ship was destroyed. The Sleekhawks also took a great deal of fire, but the combination of poor Grome accuracy, their heavy armour and evasive maneuvers meant they both avoided a lot of the fire. One sleekhawk escaped with only scratches on the ships hull, the second suffered more severely and while still functional, had taken extensive damage to a lot of systems. This was not enough to prevent both the Assault ships from launching their breaching pods. The Drazi Strikebirds likewise launched their Sky Serpents, propelling them at speed with their catapults.

Turn 3

With their Breaching pods launched the Sleekbirds raced through the Grome fleet. Twisting as they went to avoid fire. The heavily damaged Sleekbird almost made it through the formation but the Groth gunship poured a stream of fire into the ship and it broke apart under the fire. The Regla fighters took off in pursuit on the remaining Sleekbird but its speed meant it was able to avoid most of their fire. The Sky serpents closed in on the Groth Gunship and poured fire into it but debris from the destroyed Sleekbird prompted them to take evasive measures and most of the fire went wide. 

Half the Drazi ships engage the Grome from the rear..

The debris did not deter the breaching pods as they clamped on to the Groth and disgorged their boarding parties. The Groth was under immense pressure as it came under fire from a Guardhawk, Solar hawk and Strikehawk. causing severe damage to the ship. The Drazi boarding parties had to cut their way through shattered bulkheads and debris strewn compartments to get to grips with the remaining defenders. They made short work of them when they did finally manage to engage them. With most of the Groth Gunships crew dead or wounded, the Drazi raced on towards their objectives.

..while the other half attack the Grome Van

At the head of the formation, the Drazi concentrated their fire on the Gralac Heavy Carrier. There were some ships out of position but those that were able to fire did so. Intense flak cannon fire was able to deflect much of the Drazi barrage but some shots did make it through the defensive screen  and the carrier suffered moderate damage. The Grome response was vicious and Drazi ships began to be rapidly knocked out. The Guardhawk that had taken position to cover the Sky serpents and Breaching pods was disabled, the second Sunhawk at the rear of the Grome formation took evasive action as it was under fire but maneuvered into weapons fire from several of the Grome heavy frigates and its forward section was smashed leaving the wreck tumbling out of control.

Turn 4

The Drazi closed in smelling blood. Both of the larger Grome ships were heavily damaged and the Drazi ships moved in. The Grome fighters abandoned their pursuit of the Sleekbird and swarmed the Drazi Darkhawk. pouring fire into the ships missile pods and damaging them severely. 

The Drazi concentrate on the Grome capital ships

The Drazi concentrated their fire on the Gralac Heavy Carrier closing in from multiple angles but disciplined and constant defensive fire saw the ship able to weather the storm, but barely, the ship being crippled by the Drazi onslaught. one of the Morgat Heavy Frigates also came under fire, Particle weapons wrecking a lot of the ships systems almost destroying the ship. The Drazi had been perhaps a little too aggressive and they found themselves taking fire from multiple directions, so much so that it was impossible to dodge any weapon fire without maneuvering into salvos that would otherwise have gone wide. In quick succession the remaining Sunhawks were both destroyed, as was the surviving Guardhawk, and the damage was inflicted on the Jumphawk

But suffer horrendous losses

On the Groth Gunship the Drazi boarding teams started to make their way towards the ships command and control centre and  engineering compartments but encountered incredibly stiff resistance. The Grome, incensed at the prospect of losing one of their most valuable ships to enemy hands launched a suicidal attack on the boarders and slaughtered them to the last man.

With Turn 4 being absolutely catastrophic for the Drazi we elected to end the game at that point. The Grome were in a dominating position and it was unlikely the Drazi would be able to turn the game around.

Losses and Damage

Grome Autocracy
Groth - Crippled
Gralac - Crippled
1 Morgat Destroyed
1 Morgat Crippled
1 Morgat Light damage

Drazi Freehold
4 Sunhawks Destroyed
2 Guardhawks Destroyed
1 Sleekhawk Destroyed
1 Sleekhawk - Light damage
2 Strikebird - Moderate damage
Jumphawk - Light damage
Darkhawk - Light damage

Drazi 13 - 21 Grome

Grome Victory

Conclusion

I made several mistakes during the game. most importantly was my target priority. I should have focussed on the smaller Grome ships first in order to solidify the initiative advantage I enjoyed and make it a lot easier to maneuver my ships into advantageous positions. Instead I concentrated on the larger ships and this allowed the Grome to whittle down my numerical advantage quite quickly. I also made poor use of my escorts and didn't properly coordinate my attacks with ships out of position at key moments. Grome ships are very threatening, with excellent range on their railguns which meant that there was very little room to maneuver safely, and they are quite agile as well. I would definitely say that the Morgat is more than a match for the excellent EA Artemis and they were able to cause significant amounts of damage.
It was also disapointing to roll snake-eyes on my boarding action, the Groth only had 2 crew remaining and its loss would have made it worthwhile to continue the game. It would still have been a losing position, but capturing the Groth would have netted me a tasty 20 victory points, making it 30-21 at the end of turn 4 and with the Gralac almost at the point of death I could possibly have snagged that to take my total to 40 but losing ships in return.

My main takeaway though was that I was constantly fighting my own ships as well as those of the Grome. Having a fleet where almost the entirety of my weapons are bore-sighted is really really hard, and not at all fun. having to engage the ships you are pointed directly at regardless of how the situation develops with every ship in your fleet is incredibly frustrating. And it isn't even if as a consolation prize your ships are powerfully armed, they just aren't. I very much get the impression the Drazi fleet list was an afterthought, and that's something I aim to rectify.

Thanks to Ginge for being a great opponent as always.
STL's by Tyrel Lohr

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