Tip of the Spear: Battle of Tithalis April 2230. Dilgar Imperium v Drazi Freehold. An ACTA battle report

 

'They are almost a week overdue, Its possible that the Vulture could have problems with its jump engine' the message from the Hunters was irritating. They were well regarded from their exploits but their equipment left a lot to be desired, all the better for the Freehold to disavow their actions even if they were all state sponsored.

'You have a second vulture, go and get them' responded Captain Daro curtly

'Unfortunately it sustained damage to its propulsion systems in our last Hunt and is undergoing repairs'

'That sounds like a you problem' 

'Wait a moment, detecting a jump point opening, it "......" like D"......"ps "......"' The communication was broken and the communication officer tore off his head set.

'detecting broad spectrum Tachyon Jamming in progress, all FTL comms are unavailable'

'Ok, lets take a closer look, set course for the Hunters base'

With the Dilgar invasions of Alaca and Balos concluded the Drazi and the Abbai signed a mutual defense treaty to forestall any thoughts the Dilgar might have in attacking either race. The Abbai were technologically advanced while the Drazi had a fleet that could stand up to the aggression of the Centauri or Narn. The Drazi had been waging an undeclared war against the Dilgar for many years now using their 'Hunters'. These unaffiliated Drazi were to all intents and purposes Raiders, well supplied raiders it must be said who could gain a lot of prestige through their exploits and through these Hunters the Drazi Freehold had been attacking the Dilgar quite frequently, destroying or capturing shipping, eliminating small patrols and other small operations. For the Dilgar much of their initial experiences in space were coloured by their treatment at the hands of their less than friendly neighbours and even before they discovered their star was going to go Nova they invested heavily in the resources to bring a hostile universe to its knees.
The Drazi did not even consider the Dilgar a threat, let alone that a Dilgar Invasion was a possibility. Their intelligence sources had not hinted that the Dilgar could amass a significant enough force for such an undertaking so when hundreds of warships jumped into the Tithalis system, with hundreds more assaulting Hilak, the Drazi were caught completely off guard. The year is 2230 and the Dilgar War has just begun in earnest.

Mission

We decided to play a different mission today. Usually we will play one of the ship to ship scenarios, but for this game we thought we would try Planetfall. We made a significant change to the win condition because as written, there is not much incentive to actually capture the planet. Rather than the flat 10vps you get for holding the planet at the end of the game, we decided on progressive scoring. If you are the defender you get 5vp for each turn you hold the planet and with this being a 12 turn game that's a potential 60vp you can win. If you assume the standard 5 point battle size awarding a potential 55vp, 50 from ship kills and 5 from holding the field, not counting captures or surrenders of course, then holding the planet for the full game will win you the game regardless of what happens in space. This makes it more than just the victor of the game getting an extra 10vps.

With the fleet size being random, we selected Raid as the priority and then got a result of 7 points each to spend. Finally as the game is set in the opening battles of the Dilgar invasions in 2230, the in service dates for ships on both sides can be no later than that.

Drazi Freehold.

4x Warbird
4x War Talon
2x Sleekbird
2x Strikehawk
1x Strikebird
2x Stareagle
4x Sunhawk
2x Darkhawk
1x Eyehawk

I am once again going to be using my Drazi Redux rules to pick my fleet. One of the things you will likely notice is that the in service dates of the Warbirds, Sunhawks and their variants are a little different from those in official publications. I've followed the Agents of Gaming in service dates rather than use the Mongoose ones because they make a bit more sense.

With the battle being set at the start of 2230, just as the Dilgar war proper was beginning, the Drazi lineup is a little more restricted than usual. I won't have access to anything bigger than a skirmish ship, and of the Sunhawks, I won't be able to use the Guardhawk, Jumphawk or Solarhawk. The current version of the Guardhawk was introduced in 2234* and is a marked upgrade of the War Talon in terms of anti-fighter capability. The Jumphawk was likely an attempt to build a command ship that could better coordinate the Drazi in their fightback and the Solarhawk was 30 years in the future.

The core of the fleet is 4 Warbirds and 4 Sunhawks provide the bulk of the offensive punch. To back these up and keep at least some of the Dilgar fighters away I've taken 4 War Talons. They are weakly armed but bring some anti-fighter, escort and a Star Snake to the battle The rest of the fleet is there to bring a mix of abilities to the fight. I have a pair of assault ships, some long range firepower and a scout. This is a mission where the Drazi should have some advantage, they have lots of ships and bring a satisfyingly large number of troops with them, and most of their ships are atmospheric so not only can they land all their troops in one go, but they can also directly attack enemy troops as well.

One thing to note though, while I am bringing fighter to this game the Drazi really struggle to bring fighters in volume. they have no dedicated carriers relying on smaller ships to bring them in small numbers and as a result I have 9 ships carrying fighters or other small craft, and only 10 flights for that effort and those ships really suffer a marked reduction in firepower compared to their non fighter carrying versions.

*There are 2 versions of the Guardhawk. The first was introduced in 2205 not long after the Sunhawk first entered service. The current version was updated following the Dilgar war in 2234. so I could have fielded a Guardhawk had I wanted.

Dilgar Imperium

1x Garasoch
2x Omelos
1x Kahtrik
2x Rohric
2x Ochlavita
4x Jashakar (scout)

The Dilgar fleet is one that is strongly optimised for planetary landings with 3 assault ships being able to deliver plenty of troops. With the scoring being progressive they are intending to get troops onto the planet early and in numbers and start racking up the VP's. To support these and keep the Drazi at arms length is the escorting force. The Garasoch will provide a lot of fighters, matching in one ship alone the full Drazi complement of small craft, with the Omelos' and Ochlavita bringing long range and short range firepower, and an impressive amount of it. The 4 Jashakar Vi frigates round out the force and bring some much needed scouting ability. they are a great force multiplier and will significantly improve the punch of their weapons. Dilgar Bolters and Pulsars are really deadly and Drazi ships are not the toughest. 
There are a few ships that were unavailable to the Dilgar such as the Ochlavita Ki command destroyer but overall they have almost their complete roster available to see action. There are a few other ships, most notably from the Dilgar War fan expansion by Charles Lister that could have been included but we've not drafted the Ship Control Sheets for those yet.

The Dilgar fleet is very punchy, has lots of troops, and has plenty of the deadly Thorun Torpedofighter, probably the best fighter in the game. The drazi are quite fortunate that more Garasoch's weren't available.

Deployment

With the planet being located in a central location we randomly generated the rest of the terrain for the battle with the medium planet having a rather surprising 2 moons. there was also a number of dust clouds and a density 8 asteroid belt located near the center of the board.

The Planet and Asteroid belt dominate the center of the board

The Dilgar won the initiative thanks to their Scout re-roll, they have 4 scouts to the Drazi 1. The Drazi deployed 3 squadrons. 2 of them were identical with 2 Sunhawks, a Warbird and War Talon in each, while the 3rd was just a pair of Warbirds. the rest of the deployment put the scout and Darkhawks on the left flank, with the balance of the ships, comprising the carriers and assault ships in the center. 

The Dilgar counter deployment was very much centered on getting to the planet as soon as possible. The ships with missiles, that is the Omelos' and Ochlavitas were on the Dilgar right (Drazi left) as were their scouts as that would give them the best fields of fire for their missiles. With that done, we went into the first turn

Turn 1

Both forces closed with each other, the bulk of the Dilgar converged on the Planet, the main objective, while the pair of Ochlavita destroyers moved to engage the Drazi on the Dilgar right, and Drazi left. 

The forces converge with a Drazi squadron racing ahead to get around the asteroid belt

The Drazi in comparison took a more conservative approach, with the Squadron on the Drazi right accelerating hard to get around the large asteroid field and then engage the Dilgar from the rear. The Darkhawks and Eyebird went wide using a dust cloud for cover and keeping out of range of the Dilgar missiles. A single Darkbird found itself in extreme missile range and launched a volley at one of the Ochlavita destroyers and several missiles struck their target but caused little damage.
The rest of the Drazi ships moved forwards using the planet to cover their approach. while shuttles from the Garasoch began to land troops on the planet.

Turn 2

With landings beginning from the Garasoch, the Dilgar assault ships moved into position to begin their own landings. The Kahtrik assault ship using the planets gravity well to simply 'drop' their landing craft without having to slow down and getting a useful addition to its own velocity. While the Drazi continued to use the planet to shield themselves, they were caught a little flat footed as the pair of Omelos-class light cruisers used the planet for their own slingshot putting themselves in an extremely close range firefight.

As the Drazi use the planet to cover themselves, the Omelos' surge forwards to point blank range

Bolter fire began and the smaller Drazi ships immediately began to suffer, A warbird found itself targetted by a massive volley of missiles from one of the Omelos-class cruisers. Evasive maneuvers did very little and the ship received mutiple hits that wrecked the ship. Other Drazi ships suffered as well, a sleekbird received a hit which tore through the ships hull just as troops were boarding the breaching pods killing many of them, and causing heavy casualties among the crew.  The second Omelos poured sustained fire into one of the Drazi War Talons, the ship presenting its side to the Dilgar and thus a great target and its hull was torn to pieces by the larger Dilgar ship as it passed, the wrecked ship tumbling away. The Garasoch got in on the action and the forward section of one of the Drazi Strikehawks was shattered by the powerful Dilgar bolters.

With the Dilgar surging forwards, the agile Drazi ships maneuvered themselves into ideal firing positions even as their companions were being swatted by the Dilgar like flies.
The Drazi squadron rounding the asteroid belt found itself facing a volley of torpedoes from Dilgar fighters, the lead Sunhawk took several hits but they did nothing to slow the Drazi who unleashed a barrage of fire into the side of one of the Rohrics moving in to land on the planet. they managed to score several serious hits but the ships heavy armour saved the ship from the massive volley of Particle Blaster fire. It was seriously damaged, but a less well protected ship would have certainly Succumbed.

The Flanking Drazi strike while fighting erupts on the other side of the planet

As Drazi ships began to fall, the Dilgar came under heavy fire. The second large Drazi squadron opened fire on the closest Omelos supported by several other ships. The Omelos was less well protected than the Rohric and it was quickly overwhelmed. with the hull pierced in a multitude of places, streaming broken hull plating behind it, the ship lost all power and began a death plunge into the planets atmosphere. The Omelos broke up into several pieces as it fell and millions of tons of debris crashed into the surface with the force of hundreds of nuclear warheads. As they unleased a volley of missiles at the Drazi, the Ochlavitas came under fire, a Warbird and Sleekbird poured fire into one of them and totally wrecked it with several lucky hits, the second Ochlavita was also destroyed as a Darkhawk targetted it. Sustained fire from the ships Particle Cannon as well as a highly accurate missile volley completely disabled the Ochlavita destroyer. 
While this carnage was unfolding, the Dilgar started landing even more troops on the planet solidifying their hold on it and both the Sleekbirds launched their Shallana breaching pods

Turn 3

The Dilgar Assault ships continued to deploy their troops while the Drazi forces moved in for the kill.The Dilgar Omelos maneuvered to chase the heavily damaged Sleekbird and was immediately pounced upon by the Drazi, Sunhawks and their escorts unleashed a withering and sustained barrage of fire into the Omelos, maintaining their fire long after the ships vital systems had all been destroyed but their unrestrained aggression pierced the Omelos' magazines and the ship was torn to pieces in an apocalyptic explosion. Debris smashed a Sky Serpent to pieces, obliterating the huge fighter, and also caught the pair of Stareagle frigates in the blast. one was instantly disabled, huge chunks of the Dilgar ships hull smashing the small Drazi ship like an egg. The second was shielded somewhat by the demise of its partner but still sustained major damage, surviving only to be destroyed by a volley of fire from a pair of closing Jashakar frigates

Dilgar fighters swarm a Sleekbird while the Drazi close to try to prevent landing operations

The pair of Rohrics began to enter the planets atmosphere, closely pursued by the Drazi. The damaged ship came under fire again and its engines knocked out while it was decelerating, the ship crashed to the ground and was ripped apart by internal explosions. 

One of the Rohrics is destroyed while attempting to deploy its troops

One of the Jashakars that had destroyed the Stareagle was hit by long range missiles from a Drakwak, and it too began a plunge into the planets atmosphere. another Jashakar found itself the target of both shallanas, they grappled the Dilgar frigate and blasting holes in the ships hull deployed their boarding parties.

Turn 4

With their troops landed, and suffering massive losses, the Dilgar maneuvered to escape with their remaining ships. The Garasoch powered its jump engines and opened a Jump Point. while the Kahtrik began to accelerate towards it. 

Behind them, on the Planet, the remaining Rohric was destroyed while it was on the ground, the Dilgar troops were incredibly lucky to not have the massive ship crashing down on top of them.

The Dilgar move to make their escape

The Dilgar losses didn't stop there, a Jashakar was attacked by fighters, Shallanas and then destroyed by a volley of missiles. The majority of the Drazi fire was aimed at the Garasoch. Eager to prevent the Dilgar escape all ships that could open fire, did so. It wasn't enough. despite a few solid hits, the Garasoch maintained the Jump point. 
The Dilgar did not allow the Drazi to inflict the damage without cost, a warbird that had raced around the planet was torn to pieces by pulsar fire before it could fire its weapons at the Garasoch.
The boarding party onboard the Jashakar started to suffer losses as they rampaged through the ship, but were causing some damage to critical systems as they did so.

Turn 5

With nothing to stop them from withdrawing, the Dilgar survivors entered the Jump point and completed their jump to hyperspace, leaving the Drazi in control of space, but with Dilgar troops digging in on the planet....

Aftermath

The Drazi had driven off the Dilgar, at some cost, but they had not been able to prevent large landings of troops onto the planet. They had the troops available on board their ships to drive off the Dilgar, but there was a more pressing issue. Firstly, and perhaps most obviously, the Dilgar had announced their intentions and were therefore now at war with the Drazi, and secondly, the only ship in the formation equipped with a Tachyon Transceiver was the Eyehawk, and the Dilgar were employing jamming to prevent FTL communications. with no way to communicate with any other Drazi ships in the system in a timely fashion, and also no way to alert other systems, the Eyehawk, in company with the damaged ships in the formation Jumped into Hyperspace to race towards neighbouring Drazi systems.
The rest of the Drazi, spurred on by rage, elected to remain in the system and attack the Dilgar wherever they could be found. 
There is no (Drazi) record of what their fate was.

The Dilgar War had begun

Losses and Damage

Drazi
2x Warbird - Destroyed
1x War Talon - Destroyed
1x Strikehawk - Destroyed
2x Stareagle - Destroyed
1x Sleekbird - Crippled
1x Sunhawk - Heavy Damage
1x Sleekbird - Heavy Damage
1x Strikebird - Heavy Damage

Dilgar
2x Omelos - Destroyed
2x Jashakar - Destroyed
2x Ochlavita - Destroyed
2x Rohrik - Destroyed

Space: Drazi 59-19 Dilgar

Ground: Drazi 10-50 Dilgar

Drazi destroy or drive off Dilgar assault squadron

Dilgar land troops on the planet and hold the beachhead 

Draw

Conclusion.

We did play out the turns after the Dilgar escaped, its not a very interesting conclusion to a battle report as its simply a dice game. In the final event, the Drazi dominated in space, while the Dilgar were able to hold on long enough to scrape an overall draw.
The 2 sides had very different strategies and this meant that each was able to dominate in their chosen area. 
On the Drazi side, the Sunhawks proved to be incredibly effective causing the lions share of the damage inflicted. There were a few spikes in damage, notably from a Darkhawk almost killing an Ochlavita in one turn. The Drazi did suffer badly though, for all their speed and firepower, their ships can't take much punishment in return, particularly if your dodge rolls are poor. Dilgar criticals are also incredibly potent against the Drazi. I lost several ships to a handful of hits and then a single critical.

Had the Dilgar gone for a more space combat oriented force I think it would have been much much closer. Some additional fighters too would have been a serious pain, Thoruns are incredibly dangerous. The Dilgar also didn't get in a turn of long range fire before closing which is what I was expecting to see, so they started suffering losses almost straight away. Dilgar missiles and Heavy Bolters out-range most Drazi weapons so not using this advantage was definitely a little bit of an error.
Even with a force optimised for landing troops though, almost half of the Drazi force was Destroyed or almost so. Drazi are a faction where you should expect to take mosses. you have to just ensure that the enemy losses outpace your own otherwise its game over.

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

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