Battle Station 3, Spring Y169

 This is the last of the fights at Kzinti Battle Stations on the border with the Lyrans. Forces as follows:

The Lyran force is considerable, although they don't really have enough for a full second wave of ships. Their admiral is sub-standard, so I am rationalising him as the rather foppish and incompetent son of the fiery Red Claw Duke. One thing you may notice here is the presence of a couple of Lyran Jagdpanther experimental modular cruisers. These are supposed to be the first results of the development programme that will go on later to produce the Heavy War Destroyers. The Lyrans are only allowed to have two Jagdpanthers until Y181, so I have made both of them light carriers and put them together. This means that for the first time in the campaign, the Lyrans will have some fighter cover - finally. These are also good ships in and of themselves, so they make a fine addition to any field force. The opposing Kzinti are stretched as always, but the fleet values are still roughly comparable due to their Battle Station and fighter complements. The fleet breakpoints are very similar.

I played this one on a winter's evening, so the photos aren't useable. However, it breaks down quite nicely in terms of the developing battle, so I hope you can follow the narrative reasonably well. The Kzinti set up in three groups. The first one, off to the left of Battle Station as I played it, is composed of the two Battlecruisers. Then comes the station itself with fighters deployed. Quite close to the right of the station is the Kzinti Light Cruiser, together with the Drone Frigate and Scout Frigate. Behind them is the Dreadnought, in a good position to support the lighter ships with its heavy firepower. Finally, even further to the right of the overall fleet formation is the CVS Strike Carrier group with its fighters.

The Lyrans deploy with three groups of ships quite close together, slightly off facing to the left of the Battle Station from the Kzinti point of view: two Destroyers; the three Heavy Cruiser class ships; and the two Jagdpanthers with their fighters. Further into the centre is another couple of Destroyers and then, deployed very wide, the Dreadnought and Scout Destroyer.

The action resolves itself pretty much into three sections in accordance with the Kzinti group deployments. The majority of the Lyran force easily wipes out the Battle Station's fighters and then encounters the two Kzinti Battlecruisers as they try to buy time for the Battle Station. One BC is destroyed and the other crippled. More into the centre, the lighter Kzinti ships combine with their Dreadnought to cripple one of the Destroyers facing them and chase off the other. The most exciting part of this phase of the battle comes to the Kzinti right, where the CVS group encounters the Lyran Dreadnought. Together with supporting power from the Battle Station and then the lighter ships and Dreadnought as the Kzinti sense an opportunity, the Lyran Dreadnought and Scout are both crippled - in fact, almost destroyed.

There is then a tense moment as the main Lyran force descends on the Battle Station just before the victorious Kzinti right returns to help it. All that firepower cripples the station. However, it had managed to recharge the capacitors on its Phaser-4s and these lock on to one of the remaining Destroyers, completely destroying it. The Lyrans warp out to safety.

Although they technically lost this fight, the Lyrans have left the Battle Station in such a mess that the Kzinti will have to blow it. The strategic situation requires the Kzinti forces to retreat to their next line of defence on the western (Count's) starbase. If they leave any ships at the crippled station, or indeed attempt to repair it, those vessels will probably be cut off and wiped out by superior Lyran numbers, so the big cats are going to have to cut and run. The battlefield test of the Jagdpanthers and their fighters was very successful. These cruiser-class carriers make very effective weapons platforms in their own right, and coupled with their fighters they are rather formidable. 

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