Gratuitous Federation & Empire

 High Command decides that we can afford to mount a counter-offensive, so all of the ships on the Klingon Front are amalgamated into one fleet and ordered to descend on an enemy Battle Station at "The Elbow". This is the bend in the border at the narrowest point of Klingon space, and I know from my studies at the Academy that the station here is a possible major staging-point for any Klingon offensive towards our Homeworld. It seems to me that we are going to take advantage of three factors that are, at the moment, in our favour: the Coalition is not yet fully ready to mount an offensive, which means we have a moment of opportunity to make a lightning attack that could disrupt their plans even further; we have the new generation of impressive Stinger fighters; and we have the first true carrier in the navy. Although the Uhlan is only a Destroyer-class ship, it carries twelve Stinger-IIs and four Hellbore fighters, supplemented by another six fighters on its accompanying Escor...

 The Hydrans mass everything they have to assault one of the Klingon Battle Stations at "The Elbow" as it is affectionately known, the odd bend on the border that marks the narrowest point of Klingon territory. The reason for choosing this one as a prime target is because it is the only Klingon base within normal striking distance of the Hydran capital; if they can take it out, the Hydrans reason, they will put a serious crimp in the Klingons' plans for their offensive. The Klingons are well aware of its usefulness to them, so they react in with loads of ships of their own. Even if the Hydrans don't blow the station, they will hope to trade fighters for ships: The Klingons spend all of their time wiping fighters in this approach battle, and an impressive number it is too: 39  Stingers bite the space dust. However, the cost to the Klingons is considerable: they lose all of their fighters; a D5 War Cruiser; D5C War Cruiser Leader; F5 Frigate and E4E Escort Frigate go to...

 We are joined at the second main Battle Station on the Hydran Border by the Enemy's Blood Fleet and the Foremost Fleet, which has just been constituted by new builds from the homeworld. It seems to me that the Emperor is being especially canny, because there is an old Lyran proverb that a three-legged cat is more stable. Roughly, this means that three relatively balanced Dukes provide stability, while two or four tend to cause civil wars and unwanted alliances. If three are in the same sector, none will ally with any of the others for fear that the third will call upon the Emperor. The Foremost Fleet was in reserve awaiting events on our front, and the fact it has arrived suggests that the Hydrans are heading this way. Their preponderance of fighters gives them the opportunity for a decent counteroffensive, and we are still building our forces here - the Foremost is just the first of a series of scheduled reinforcements. The Hydrans are going to try to keep us off balance. Sensors...

 The Kzinti regroup and reform. I know that standard practice in F&E  is to counterattack with the Alliance forces to take advantage of all those fighter factors, but in this hybrid with Star Fleet Battle s this is not necessarily a good idea because the strategic-level game does not quite translate in that way to the tactical level. There is, though, a difference between the two alliance powers in that the Hydrans have even more fighters than the Kzinti; they are easily the nastiest in known space; and the Lyrans and Klingons are not yet in all-offensive mode on that front. So the Hydrans go for the second main Battle Station on the Lyran border: I never know what to expect in these battles, especially when the Hydrans are involved - there are simply too many variables. As you can see from the Battle Mat, I constructed the Hydrans based on a hybrid force for the approach battle to the station, while the Lyrans are just based on pure combat power. The Lyrans are ...

 This is the strategic map as the Coalition turns grinds to a halt: My fast-play rules for the tabletop battles are coming along nicely, although they did get a bit samey with so many fights with roughy similar fleets. So I have spiced it up a bit, using cards to randomise fire and movement. Not only does this better approximate the Impulse system of SFB at the macro-scale, it also mixes things up a bit more for me, which helps keep it fresh. Both of the Alliance powers are feverishly building up their defences. The Kzinti will probably do little except try to recover and get ready for the next wave, while the Hydrans will hit some enemy Battle Stations. If they can take out some of those, it will make the logistical support for the full Coalition offensive on this front a bit more difficult. The Hydrans need to take as much advantage of the situation as they can before more of the Coalition's might comes in their direction. 

 In common with other officers from the Inevitable  (and, indeed the rest of the fleet), I am granted some shore leave - well, what passes for it on a Battle Station on the Klingon Border. The orders go out in quite large batches, which confirms my suspicion that our long-awaited ship refits will take place while most of the crews are not present, to preserve secrecy.  However, when I return nothing seems to have been done to the  Inevitable at all, and even some sneaky use of my privileges as First Officer to make a quick scan of the other vessels reveals nothing out of the ordinary. I don't have more time to ponder, though, as the alarms wail - the Klingons are coming. This will be my second proper fleet engagement. The crippled Knight from our little Destroyer flotilla has not yet been repaired, so it is replaced by a Lancer from the very few reserves we have in this area. We are deployed at the extreme left of our feet's defensive formation, although overall the ...

 The Klingons have moved a decent force toward their second target, which is ably defended by the Hydran Expeditionary Fleet: Although the Klingons are led by a Command Cruiser, in this instance they have a decent number of the newer war cruisers. The Hydrans as usual have relatively little in the way of reserve vessels, but because this is their Expeditionary Fleet, the one thing they do have - unfortunately for the Klingons - is a large number of reserve fighters.  The Battle intensity Roll is not kind to the Klingons, but then they probably don't want to be too aggressive in the first few battles because of all those Hydran fighters; a Klingon fleet with orders to disengage after a quick pass is more likely to survive - or at least take a bit less damage. Here is how it goes. The Klingon fleet deployment is relatively wide, while the Hydrans are more concentrated. 1: The fighter melee goes against the Klingons, as is only to be expected. It's not as bad as it could have bee...

 The Klingons are attacking three Hydran Battle Stations, hoping to spread the little guys thin somewhere in order to do some proper damage. This may not happen at the first station: The Klingons force here is led by a D7C Command Cruiser, and has no Scout. It does, though, have a Carrier Tug and an F5V Light Carrier. Basically, the Klingons on this front are not as well prepared as their northern brethren against the Kzinti, so they are having to make do in the meantime as the Klingon war machine gears up to send more ships in this direction.  Unfortunately for the Klingons, the fleet they meet is composed of the vessels that have been built as new at the Hydran capital since the Coalition invasion of Kzinti territory. They don't have a fleet Scout either, but then they probably don't need one. This lot is led by a Paladin Dreadnought and also includes the first of a new generation of proper carriers: the Uhlan might only be Destroyer class, but it carries sixteen fighters, a...

 The Lyrans have enough forces on the Hydran Front to attack one Battle Station, but not two. The Hydrans have spread their fleets here across the two main possible targets, so basically the Lyrans can't afford to attack both, but will probably destroy one due to local superiority in numbers. As usual, the Hydrans are extremely powerful, but without any real reserves. The Lyran force is the best they can produce from the combined Enemy's Blood and Far Stars Duchies. Led by a Battle Tug, they have six Heavy Cruisers and six Light Cruisers. Although the defence is being conducted by a Hellbore fleet, the presence of a Battle Station still makes the Hydran deployment formidable. Of course, what the Lyrans don't yet know is that the Hydrans have deployed Stinger-II fighters for the first time. The results are astonishing: the increased speed and hit points of the Hydrans gets them through the usual phaser and disruptor attacks, and also the local ESG fields. The attacking fight...

 Although we do not as yet have enough force on this front to mount a major offensive against the Hydran enemy, the combination of our own Far Stars Fleet with the Enemy's Blood Duchy gives us a decent shot at one attack. The Hydrans have been forced to divide their fleets here in two in order to cover both of their Battle Stations that are within striking distance of our vessels, so we pick one and go in. Whichever one we hit will probably put up a stout defence before falling to our local superiority in numbers. In the event, the two Dukes do a deal to split the honours. Our Far Stars Duke M'Muran graciously agrees to wait out the first attack; after all, the Hydrans have destroyed one of the two Enemy's Blood frontier stations, so it only seems fair to give them first shot. The Enemy's Blood Duke leads from a Battle Tug equipped with new Klingon battle pods - these are functionally the same as our own pallets, but they do look cool. He is directly supported by a Dest...

... at least for the moment. The Lyrans have made a start on their planet-hopping campaign, and the Duke's Starbase has finally been destroyed by the Klingons after fourteen separate sorties: The map now shows how bare the Kzinti border areas are, with so many bases lost; the opposition is also starting to make serious inroads into Kzinti space itself. Having said that, the big cats are fighting for every inch, with the combination of carriers and fixed defences giving the invaders a series of serious headaches. Disruptor fleets don't tend to destroy many vessels, but the Klingons are beginning to find out just what it is like to have one's logistics swamped by crippled vessels, as did the Lyrans before them. Every single northern Klingon Battle Staton has a crippled cruiser sitting on it, and the Northern Reserve Fleet contains twenty crippled ships.

 The Klingons are throwing everything they have in the northern theatre at the Duke's Starbase: As usual the defending Kzinti forces are very powerful because of the station and their fighters, while the attacking Klingons have loads of ships. The first engagement goes the way of the Kzinti. The Klingons come in as two distinct groups, while the Kzinti are quite nicely concentrated near the Starbase. The first Klingon groups comprises their cruiser-class ships: a D5 Squadron; a D7 Wing; and a group comprising a D6M Mauler and a D7 Battlecruiser, together with an Orion CR mercenary. This lot wipes the floor with large numbers of Kzinti fighters, but sees little action against the defending vessels. The second Klingon battle group comprises the carriers, the Dreadnought, and a Tug carrying Drone pods. This lot also destroys a whole load of Kzinti fighters, but takes the brunt of the fire from the entire Kzinti fleet. The results are not pretty. The Klingons lose every single fighter ...

 Our newly-repaired F5E Escort Axe Guard , the first of its kind, is assigned to a D6CV along with a smaller E4E as part of the first wave against the Kzinti Duke's Starbase. Our fleet is led by Admiral Ulorf, our leading strategist on all things Kzinti. We attack in two groups; the battlecruisers are all off to our starboard side, while we are in a battle group with Ulorf's C8 Dreadnought, an F5V Light Carrier; an F5C Frigate leader; and a tug carrying drone pods. Our half of the fleet ends up facing most of the Kzinti, and we take a hammering - gloriously, of course. We go right into the middle of them, and the Axe Guard's weaponry shows its worth against Kzinti fighters, as does the superior fire arcs of our phasers. At one point all of our ships dance our famous Klingon oblique manoeuvre, as we cut loose with everything we have. The carnage is tremendous, with Kzinti fighters exploding all over the place, but they are just too many - and they have the support of their m...