Thursday, September 25, 2014

On Patrol

A Lunar Class Imperial Cruiser on patrol spots a Murder Class Chaos Cruiser in Imperial space. The two ships immediately close in and assume attack positions. The Chaos captain, realizing that they must destroy the Imperial ship before it can break off and alert other Imperial forces to their presence in this sector, seizes the initiative and makes the first move.

Turn 1


 
The Chaos ship Locks On! and fires its prow lance weapons, scoring a hit on shields. The Imperial Ship launches its prow torpedoes.
 
Turn 2
 

The Chaos ship is forced to move through the Imperial ship's deadly torpedo salvo, taking shield damage. The Imperial ship turns to the starboard side and unleashes a close range lance and weapons battery salvo on the Chaos ship, damaging the hull.

Turn 3


The Chaos ships turns to the port side and begins to come about as the Imperial ship peppers its shields.

Turn 4

The Chaos ship is unable to score any hits shooting through blast debris. The Imperial ship does superficial shield damage.

Turn 5


The Chaos ship turns to port again and lines up the Imperial ship for a ramming action as the Imperial ship turns to the starboard side unleashing a devastating closing rake.

Turn 6


The ramming action causes 3 hull points to the Imperial ship while taking no damage itself. The Chaos ship's Boarding Action fails and the attacking Chaos ship suffers hull damage. Neither ship, however, suffers any critical damage from the fighting. Several hull points have already been taken on both sides but the Chaos ships is the closest to being crippled!

Turn 7


The Chaos ship turns to port to get some distance between it and the Imperial ship but the crew fails to respond to the Chaos captain's commands to go on Special Orders. The Imperial ship is forced to Come To A New Heading to avoid leaving the battle but even with reduced firepower still manages to score a couple hits.

Turn 8

 

The distance between the two ships increases as the Chaos ship moves All Ahead Full in the attempt to clear the Imperial ship's guns and reposition itself. The Imperial ship's crew is momentarily elated about its surviving the boarding action and scoring several hits in the process of battle, so becomes unresponsive when the Imperial Captain attempts to issue Special Orders.

Turn 9

The Chaos ship, still maneuvering itself for another pass, Comes To New Heading and comes abeam of the Imperial ship on its port side at long range. Perhaps there will be some cover from a stubborn field of blast debris that refuses to dissipate. The Imperial ship's crew still proves unresponsive to Special Orders and must follow the Chaos ship for now.

Turn 10


 
As the Chaos ship continues to Come To New Heading, the Imperial Captain, bolstered by success in the battle so far, sees an opportunity and decides to launch his prow torpedoes at the Chaos ship dead ahead.

Turn 11


The Chaos ship is able to outmaneuver the deadly torpedo salvo and Comes To New Heading to close on the Imperial ship once again, but the reduced effectiveness caused by the Special Order makes its lance batteries ineffective. The Imperial ship's torpedoes had been dodged, but the Chaos ship had been forced into effective range of its starboard lance and weapons batteries. The Imperial ship scores several hits, knocking the shields down, scoring another point of hull damage, and crippling the Chaos ship.

Turn 12


The Chaos ship, now crippled, moves All Ahead Full in the direction it had come from to avoid being completely destroyed by the Imperial ship. In time, the Chaos ship would be able to repair the damage to its hull and fight another day. The Imperial ship comes about on its starboard side in the hopes of finishing the job, but the long range and the inability of the crew to execute Special Orders secured the Chaos ship's retreat.

Results


The Imperial Lunar Class Cruiser had won, but it was going to need to do better at executing Special Orders to destroy its enemies. The Imperial ship was lucky that Boarding Actions favor the defender. Otherwise, the game could have easily went to the Chaos side. Lance weapons to the starboard and port sides proved useful in taking down the enemy's shields but torpedoes, or the threat of torpedoes, were still more powerful.

No comments:

Post a Comment