The Coalition's planet-hopping campaign is now in full swing on the Kzinti Front:
These are the forces for the initial engagement at the planet of Zimdars, which is pretty much all that now stands between the Lyrans and the Kzinti capital - well, that and the Count's Fleet stationed there. The initial stages are usually when the Lyrans are at their most powerful; it can take a while to degrade the Kzinti combat power because of all those fighters. The Kzinti prefer not to offer approach battles because against Lyran combat capabilities they need all the fighters they can get, and the two squadrons from Zimdars will be most useful.
Evem so, the Lyrans nearly take the planet on their first attempt, wiping large numbers of fighters (26) and forcing two Battlecruisers and the Orion mercenary to retire, heavily damaged. In return, the Lyran Dreadnought and one of their Heavy Cruisers have to leave with heavy internals, and all of their fighters are destroyed. A little bit of luck goes the way of the Kzinti though, as the excellent new Red Claw admiral is wounded in action. This will relieve the pressure for the next battle because his replacement is a standard commander, which means one fewer ship. The fleets are almost the same as the first time around. The Lyrans need to drop their Jagdpanther modular carrier because of the change in command structure - and it has no fighters left anyway. The Kzinti replace the Orion with a Fast Battlecruiser from their reserves. Everything else on both sides is replaced like for like:
This one is a good, stand-up fight right across the board, with no nasty surprises. The Lyrans destroy all of the defending fighters, inflict heavy damage to a Destroyer and cripple a Battlecruiser. The Kzinti destroy half of the attacking fighters, inflict heavy damage on a Heavy Cruiser, and cripple another Heavy Cruiser and the War Cruiser Leader. So a good time was had by all.
Third Battle:
Both sides are almost completely out of fighters, and the attrition is, as usual, beginning to mount:
This one is an almost perfect example of how to run a Kzinti fleet, which is gratifying because I'm using card activation and random rolls for my solo rules. Basically, the Lyrans come in on a broad front and shred fighters, killing 30 of them in total. Any extra damage is spread relatively harmlessly across the defending ships. The bigger cats, however, sense an opening. On the extreme left of their deployment, the Lyrans have placed their little DWV War Destroyer Carrier, fronted by two Destroyers. Unfortunately for them, they are facing the majority of the Kzinti fleet. The main CVS carrier group and the Battlecruiser squadron (led by the Command Cruiser) both close to overload range and cripple the two Destroyers, firing at their no.1 and no.6 shields and removing them from the game as they drift off into silent running. Then the Kzinti ships launch drones at the poor carrier - a total of twenty drones. Guess what happens next...
This is an instance of why I am not bothering with the detailed tactics available to individual ships. Yes, in standard Star Fleet Battles the DWV would pop a Wild Weasel. But it would then be unable to escape by acceleration, and there are six cruiser-class ships in overload range. So the result would in fact be the same anyway.
Elsewhere, the Kzinti command group cripples a War Cruiser as an afterthought. The Lyrans leave, with not a single Kzinti ship harmed in any meaningful manner, since all the damage went on their fighters.
Fourth Battle:
Because the last one was rather successful for the Kzinti, they still have some fighters left in the main line, although their reserves are now entirely empty. The Lyrans are having to use Frigates, which is usually a sign that they are running out of decent ships. Having said that, they do have plenty of them:
This one is a good way to show how the conversion works from the strategic game. The Kzinti have a fleet combat value of 129, the Lyrans 90. They both roll a 5 on the battle intensity, which gives the Kzinti fleet a breakpoint of 38, and the Lyrans 27. Ten of the Kzinti factors are fighters. So you can see why they use them: if you take away the fighters, the ships in their fleet are only worth one more point in this engagement than the attackers.
It does not go well for the Kzinti as the dice decree that most of their heavier ships operate rather tentatively, while the Lyrans really go for it. Planetary defence battles are less worrying for a good attacking force than Battle Stations, because if you can deal with the fighters, the planet's bases are really only equivalent to a Light Cruiser. The Kzinti command group plays it cagey on their left, effectively fencing at medium range with a Lyran War Cruiser Squadron. The gives the Lyrans the edge in the centre, where a Heavy Cruiser Squadron led by a Command Cruiser wipes out the lightest Kzinti flotilla, destroying both FFK refitted Frigates and the Destroyer, for the loss of a Heavy Cruiser heavily damaged. On the Kzinti right, their Light Cruisers and Escort Carrier destroy a Frigate and the Heavy Frigate, and do heavy damage to the last of the Lyran Frigates.
The main event, though, is in the centre, and the Lyran command contingent gets right up close and personal with the CVS Carrier Group. Both Escort Light Cruisers are destroyed and the carrier crippled. The Kzinti have to leave in a rush, which means that Zimdars falls.
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