Second Battle

 The second game gets underway: 

Photos taken from behind the Lyran fleet. The two Lyran Heavy Destroyers run almost immediately into a heap of trouble in the form of fighter and carrier drones from the CVS group immediately to their front. Unlike in the previous engagement, however, I have decided to use electronic warfare to eliminate drones. The larger Lyran vessels are easily capable of taking care of themselves, so rather than support them, it seems much more sensible to counter the Kzinti missiles. The combination of defensive power plus a burst of static from the Lyran Scout Destroyer takes care of the incoming.

Further into the Lyrans' centre, their two Light Cruisers and Heavy Frigate encounter a Kzinti FFK frigate leader, amply support by disruptor fire from their heavier ships.


Over at the Lyran extreme right, their Command Cruiser and War Cruiser Leader are facing a cruiser squadron with CVE group support, including more fighters.


Back on the Lyran left, the enemy FFK has gone into silent running to escape after being crippled, while the Lyran Heavy Frigate has warped out after losing several shields and taking substantial damage. Well, it's either that or make a spectacular sunburst in a few moments' time - look at all those drones! Both Lyran Heavy Destroyers have also vanished from the sensors, with one warping out before being destroyed, and the other going silent after being crippled. Hence all the suddenly empty hexes...


Not a lot is yet happening in the centre of the battle.


Things are about to heat up at the Lyran right. The three ships at the bottom of the photo as you look at it are a Heavy Cruiser and a couple of War Cruisers. The Lyran Command Cruiser and War Cruiser Leader are much faster, and will take the initial wave of Kzinti damage; hopefully their compatriots will move in afterwards.


The lone Lyran Heavy Cruiser at the left of their line is about to be hit by an unfeasibly large drone wave from the Kzinti fighters. However, it has plenty of defensive juice and this, plus another burst from the Scout Destroyer, removes the missiles. Larger Lyran vessels that carry more than one ESG can account for lots of drones, but the amount of power expended is considerable.


The centre is still relatively quiet. 


I won't complain too much about the sunlight, since we don't see much of it here at this time of the year. I'm hoping you can still make out what is going on here. Basically, the Lyran Command Cruiser and War Cruiser are being targeted by more drones.


Over on the other side of the battle, things are about to become very bad indeed for two Lyran Light Cruisers. In a classic fighter wave assault, the Kzinti hurt both of them; the CVS group is about to move in for the kill, and both CLs are destroyed completely.


The CVE's fighters use the last of their drones on the Command Cruiser. A really messy fight develops here as the remaining Lyran Cruisers get into action, supported by their Battle Tug. The Frigate escorting the CVE and the lone Kzinti Light Cruiser are both crippled. Off to the right, the Lyran War Cruiser Leader puts up a brave fight against the enemy cruiser squadron, but is then crippled by four drones from the Kzinti Command Cruiser. The Lyrans vacate the premises.

This battle played out much more quickly than the previous one, being finished in two and a half hours. Staggering the deployments really helped, as did the Lyran use of electronic warfare and larger ships. The Kzinti are vicious opponents due to the combination of fighters and drones, but when superior Lyran (and Klingon) numbers start to converge at the strategic level, the big cats are going to be up against it. Looking forward to that...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

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