Autumn 168: Northern Battle

These are the force compositions for the more northerly of the two battles between the Lyrans and the Kzinti:


The Vassal module for Federation & Empire has a really useful sub-routine for battle forces, pretty much as the equivalent from the boardgame. The Kzinti have offered battle at quite some remove from the Battle Station itself, not wishing to give the Lyrans the opportunity to make a direct attack on it. The invaders have accepted in accordance with the strategy agreed in conjunction with the Klingons, and this is the result: the first of two battles on the approaches to a couple of Kzinti border Battle Stations. The Lyrans are not really intending to threaten the stations at the moment; these attacks are more a feint to draw the main Kzinti forces westwards so that the assault by the Klingons will be more successful. However, the Lyrans still want to take the opportunity to damage the defending Kzinti forces, especially if they get lucky against one of the Kzinti carriers. Besides, the Lyran conception of honour (not to mention sheer ferocity) requires them to make some sort of initial attack now that they have declared war.

The Kzinti are the white counters at the top. They have a Command Cruiser; a CV carrier group, comprising the carrier itself plus a Light Cruiser Escort and an additional Frigate Escort; a second, much smaller Escort Carrier with its own Escort Frigate; two Battlecruisers; a Light Cruiser; a Heavy Frigate; a Frigate; and a Scout Frigate. They are led by a really good admiral, whose name I have yet to decide upon; he will probably place his flag on the main carrier.

Lyran ships tend to be more powerful than their Kzinti counterparts, but the Lyrans are not really a fighter-using power, so the Kzinti attrition units compensate rather nicely for the disparity. The Lyrans are led by a Battlecruiser, with two CA Heavy Cruisers; a Fast Heavy Cruiser; two War Cruisers; three Light Cruisers; four Destroyers; and a Scout Destroyer. They are also led by a good quality admiral. The two forces are almost identical in value because of the Kzinti fighters.

I am hoping to play the battle using my ad hoc solo fleet command rules with the Star Fleet Battles SSDs as templates as a test run for how I will continue with the campaign when I move to the UAE. I will post a full report of the battle when finished, probably with an accompanying account from the viewpoint of a newly commissioned Kzinti fighter pilot. I find that a story narrative helps to concentrate the attention. I'll probably do this with each of the major races as they enter the war in sequence; it'll be interesting to see how far each of the respective heroes gets in their careers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Lyrans are coming!

Image
 Well, not quite - this is my attempt at a Battle Station. It would actually do for pretty much any of the major powers, but I gave it a base sandy color and stuck some Lyran Homeworld Clan markings on it: The Lyran decals have come out much more sharply than the Kzinti ones did, possibly because of the lighter background tones. And for some reason my stations always look manky rather than Star Trek pristine, but I like the well used look. The second photo shows more of the detail, of which there is a great deal indeed. The model is six inches across by two inches high. It came with a flight stand, but being made of resin the station was far too heavy to balance safely so I simply glued it straight onto its base. In any case its relative height means it will still fit nicely with my spaceship models. I'm getting quite a lot of painting done at the moment. Teaching has finished for this academic year, although admin and my own writing will keep me busy. Doing a colour every so often...
Read more

Jupiter IV SFB decals

Image
 I bought some of these. They took well over a month to arrive from Canada:  For the Kzinti: ship insignia to the left as you look at them, and ships' names in suitably off-looking script to the right. I've tried them out now on the model I put together as a Kzinti Starbase, and they are rather disappointing. The sheet of Kzinti names comes out very dark, too dark for use, in fact, even though I tried them on a painted stripe of white. The ship insignia are also dark, but those ones are usable. I'll probably paint a little white rectangle on the ships themselves to make the decals 'pop' a bit more. One thing to look out for is that the entire sheet is covered with transfer film, so you need to cut around the individual decals to make sure there isn't too much extra - that can become a bit awkward when you are trying to put them onto a ship panel. This reminds me of older transfer sets like the old Revo medieval ones. Overall verdict: worth getting the insignia s...
Read more

Fly me to the moon

Image
 And other places. These are resin pieces, 6" diameter, sold by Combat Zone Scenery in the UK, and very nice they are too. Part of their Armada scenery range, they are useful hemispherical planets of various kinds. Here's my attempt at the moon/planetoid/large asteroid one: In any tabletop space combat game the miniatures are going to be wildly out of scale when compared with model planets, but often we need something visual to do the job well. These fit the bill nicely. Jungle planet: I used gloss acrylics for the sea effect. You'll notice a couple of metallic building son the surface - the moon of Endor? In fact, the other two definitely show the Star Wars Armada theme:  Ice planet - aka Hoth. And yes, that is a representation of a dead Tonton at middle right. You can also see a destroyed At-At walker at the top of the photo. The details are fun, but they have to impressionistic. I think this one turned out well, to my surprise. Someone once told me a long time ago not ...
Read more