Second Battle

 

Again, the fleets are evenly matched. This time, though, the compositions are different. As a major nobleman, the Kzinti Duke's flagship is the Dreadought Hegemony. The Lyrans suspected the Kzinti would react in to protect their Battle Stations with a force like this, so they have committed a Battle Tug to the fight. As usual, the overall superiority of Lyran ships is countered by the number of Kzinti fighters.

Morale is different from the previous engagement. I rolled low for the Kzinti and average for the Lyrans. I am rationalising this in campaign terms as part of my ongoing narrative. The Lyrans are here to force a battle, but are not really expecting to break through to the Battle Station itself. They will of course take the opportunity should it arise. The Kzinti Duke, while a capable admiral, is a bit tired from constant warfare. A star of the Four Powers' War, Duke S'Mau is starting to feel a bit old for this sort of thing. He and his subordinates are also well aware that by shifting to the Lyran border to counter the immediate threat, they have had to weaken the defences against the Klingons. The Kzinti Dukedom straddles the point where the Lyran and Klingon attack routes converge, which means that S'Mau's territory is strategically valuable and under constant threat from both directions. Basically, in this engagement the Kzinti are looking over their shoulders.

I use the standard D6 roll on the Battle Intensity Table from Federation & Empire, without variations. However, instead of using the percentage rolled there as the combat damage inflicted on the enemy fleet, it relates to the rolling player's own morale rating. The combat values of the two fleets are indeed almost identical. The Lyrans have a total attacking value of 89, while the Kzinti have a defence of 90 (the Vassal module has a handy calculator to do the hard work for you). The Lyrans rolled a '3' on the D6, which the table gives as 25%; one-quarter of their force's combat potential is a nice, easy 22 points. Rolling only a '1', however, the Kzinti have a 20% rating, which gives them a fleet morale breakpoint of 18. That is the equivalent difference of a Frigate between them, so it could matter. In point of fact, the War Cruiser Squadron rule means that the actual value of the Lyrans is increased by a point, but in this case it makes no difference to the calculation - it's full values that matter, not fractions. How would you account for half a spaceship!?

Learning from the previous game, I have decided not to be too fancy with any of this. The numbers indicate the point at which a fleet will disengage rather than take any more losses, and I will just use the counter values from F&E. If a ship is crippled or destroyed in the Star Fleet Battles game, that value is subtracted from the morale value for the fleet as a whole. Fighters have a different morale system from the ships, but basically when a squadron is wiped out, or when the survivors turn tail and head back to the carrier, the factor for the squadron is counted against the fleet. So, for example, the Lyrans will concede and warp out if they lose the equivalent of, say, two War Cruisers and a Heavy Cruiser. The Kzinti would do the same if they were to lose a couple of Battlecruisers and the smaller fighter contingent from the Escort Carrier, or something like that. Obviously this is not an exact science, and it is distinctly possible that a fleet could lose more than this due to the circumstances of the battle, going from near breaking point to substantially in excess of it because of the loss of an extra ship or two at the same time as the fleet reaches its stated morale value. If both fleets reach breaking point at the same time, the defender is considered to be the victor.

It is therefore distinctly possible that on this occasion the Kzinti will disengage first and retreat to their station, followed by a Lyran force eager to follow up on a somewhat unexpected victory. That would give me my first fixed position game, which of course will be much more likely to result in a decent Kzinti win. Both fleets do have a few extra forces in reserve, so the permutations are considerable. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. I have a feeling that situations like this will turn into little mini-campaigns, which seems realistic. If one can even use that word about a spaceship battle campaign game thing!