Persei-Aries War Resumes
Battle of Kayashenko Four
FROM: UNITED NATIONS REGIONAL COLONIAL CENTER
02:10 SOL GMT, 08 MAY 2521
BREAKAUTH: 181072.18J
CLEARANCE: SECRET (NATIONAL)
**UNITED NATIONS COMMUNIQUE**
Reports have now been confirmed of another major naval action in the Third Hercules War. In response to their recent setback in the UN-Mandated “Redemption” colonies (99 Hercules system), the United States Navy has sent a high-speed task force into orbit of the Russian-owned “Kayashenko” gas giant, scene of a bloody American defeat suffered at the lands of the Arab League last month.
Sources close to American naval command and colonial administration at Port Halsey in the Vega Colonies (Alpha Lyra) suggest that the plan was originally to send a somewhat smaller force much further. Specifically this would have been Task Force Oriskany under Captain Matthew A. Spencer, a small hunter-killer group of destroyers, a light carrier, and a torpedo corvette with greatly enhanced Darkstar drives. The original target was the Arab League base of operations at Khaizan’s Haven (14 Hercules), a full sixty light-years from Port Halsey. While Task Force Oriskany could cover this distance in about two weeks, any other naval units proposed to support the strike would take upwards of two months to cover the same strike range.
Alternatively, US Naval Command wanted to make this a much larger operation, determined to mount a definitive response in the wake of the Battle of Kayashenko 17 and the loss of the destroyer USS Vincennes. Commodore Virginia Saunders was placed in command, flying her flag aboard her newly-arrived Gettysburg class heavy cruiser, USS Shiloh.
With such a heavy warship in the task force, any question of striking distant targets like 14 Hercules was out. Instead, the Americans chose to hit the Arab League at the Kayashenko gas giant (pressure from their Russian allies at Krasnaya Nadhezda may also have influenced the American decision). Orders were simple, return to the Kayashenko gas giant in 99 Hercules, engage any Arab League warships lingering among the planet’s 63 moons, and defeat them.
Clearly this new mission profile was drawn up as much for political reasons as military objectives. The Americans wanted to win a battle against the league at Kayashenko, symbolically balancing the scales after the loss of the Vincennes (lost with 110 souls including Commander Yvonne Alliston). They also needed to secure Kayashenko for their Russian allies before they started looking to cut a separate peace. Lastly, the primary reason the Americans joined this war in the first place was to win shipping and colonization rights along the Hercules Rim, and the UN-mandated “open system” of Hercules 99 seemed a natural place to plant the flag.
As fate would have it, however, this American response at Kayashenko would have tremendous military impact as well, since the Arab League was also building up a heavy naval presence, hidden among the Kayashenko moons. Clearly they hoped to build on their earlier success, shoving heavy naval units into the 99 Hercules system while the Americans and Russians remained off-balance. Starships of the League tend to have much faster Darkstar drives than similar warships in other navies, giving them a great advantage in operational flexibility and making such a forward deployment that much easier.
So when the USS Shiloh, flanked and screened by Task Force Oriskany, made its appearance at Kayashenko, it found not the small cruiser-carrier battlegroup that had been here last month … but a far more powerful task force of heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers. This engagement, in orbit of the larger “Galilean” moon of Saint Yegor (Kayashenko 4) will pit 1.1 million tons of warships into a pitched battle, fought between two full battle fleets of “outside powers” both hoping to stake a claim in 99 Hercules and the Hercules Rim in general.
Game Terms: Solitaire game to test two NEW ship designs, the Arab League Damascus class heavy cruiser, and the long-awaited American Gettysburg class heavy cruiser. Also, I sometimes feel a little bad putting the FULL order of battle of Task Force Oriskany (heavily upgraded, very experienced) up against newer battlegroups and task forces of other players. Lastly, I wanted a chance to dust off my old Arab League commanders, who haven’t seen action since the Aegean Path War (played in 2014).
508 points per side
ASSAULT victory rules
Here is the current disposition of the Third Hercules War. While the strategic American focus remains on securing British colonies at Hawking’s Star, the massive and bloody DRAW fought there with Russian, British, and Japanese naval units means it will take some time for the Americans to realign their forces and allies to make another push at knocking the UK out of the war. Meanwhile, media reaction to the loss of USS Vincennes and increasing complaints from the Russian allies to help deal with the Arab League along the coreward shoulder of the Hercules Rim has compelled the Americans to mount a forceful strike at any Arab League ships lurking among the moons of the Kayashenko super gas giant.
Today’s matchup. Yeah, this is gonna be a brutal one, with 12 ships, well over 100 aerospace craft, over 1 million tons in shipping, and 1016 game points on the table. This game would take experienced Darkstar players AT LEAST 6+ hours to complete, and represents the upper limit of what can usually be accomplished with Darkstar.
Both sides enter at over 35 kps, decelerating to attack speed as sharply as these immense heavy cruisers will allow. The Arab League is able to launch all their fighters and bombers (carried aboard larger-than-average “hybrid” cruisers) while the USMC strike carrier USS Tarawa gets all her bombers launched, fighters standing by right behind. In all, there are almost 80 League fighters, bombers, scouts. Both sides open fire at just under 4000 km range. The USS Oriskany takes “ranging fire” hits from heavy cruiser Ankara and the destroyers Cyrenaica and Samarra. American fire all misses. Torpedoes away!
As both sides rapidly close the range, and velocities drop beneath 20 kps, the heavy cruisers feint, shift, sidestep, and finally make hard last minute turns, each trying to get the better angle for broadsides on the other. The Americans largely win this contest, with virtually their whole fleet poised to broadside the starboard quarter of the heavy cruiser SHM Riyadh. The League deploys in a wedge, presenting broadsides in both possible directions with each element covering the fantail of the other. The aerospace strikes go in. Scouts engage bombers, the Americans lose two, the League loses three. Four Mark 48 gravitic torpedoes from the Princeton slam home into the Riyadh’s stern, together with one aerospace missile and four aerospace torpedoes from the Marines of VMF/A-319 “Tigershark” Squadron. The Riyadh is still in, but her aft shields just collapsed. The Americans do much better with their mass driver defences against the huge League aerospace strike, four aerospace missiles and six "Ahrasyfa" (Storm) torpedoes hit the starboard quarter of USS Shiloh. Some of these cavitate inside the starboard reactor room. She still has power, but starboard quarter shields (and mass drivers and sensors) just went down. The League broadside is next, all focused on the Shiloh, and it is brutal (note the League CANNOT put both their aerospace strike and gunnery against the same facing of the Shiloh, the distances were just too great). The Shiloh’s forward magazines are hit, three sensor suites, both port and starboard hangars are gone, starboard bow maneuvering thrusters, starboard bow shields, officer and enlisted quarters, and the bridge is damaged. But still she maintains power, and stays in the fight. The American broadside returns, and with more accurate guns, and careful sequencing of the hits (i.e., the heavy rail guns of the Shiloh landing AFTER all the energy based weapons of her secondary batteries and broadsides of her escorts) hit the starboard quarter of SHM Riyadh. This damage, combined with the damage inflicted by USS Princeton's torpedoes and the Marine "Tigershark" aerospace wing, is enough to force the Riyadh's captain to eject his reactors. The heavy cruiser is crippled. Off the bat, the Americans seem to have gained a critical edge in this battle. 
That American edge doesn’t last long. Although not quite crippled, the USS Shiloh has lost two shields and is basically unmaneuverable. She can only roll over on her back to protect her starboard side. Commodore Virginia Saunders orders Spencer to detach Task Force Oriskany, already ordering her crew into lifeboats and escape pods. The destroyer Samarra rushes up to broadside Shiloh's stern. The Shiloh's mass drivers (two turrets down) manage to take down most of the Ankara's torpedoes, but the last one hits the unshielded starboard bow, JUST missing the bridge. The Samarra takes a hammering on her attack run, but maintains power (losing sensors, maneuvering thrusters, shields ...) and puts a masterful broadside right into the stern of the massive Shiloh. At the same time, unloaded League “Demkikham” (Vengeance) bombers and scouts mount a desperate strafing run against the Shiloh’s unshielded starboard bow, praying to knock out the bridge. The Ankara’s torpedoes drew all the Shiloh’s mass driver fire, and the Samarra’s mass drivers shoot down most of the US scouts that try to stop the League’s bombers. Six American scouts are lost, compared to only two League bombers. It’s this bomber strafing run that finally cripples the big American cruiser, putting just enough autocannon fire into the bridge superstructure to force an evacuation and explosive decompression, knocking USS Shiloh at last out of the battle. Meanwhile, the Oriskany, Princeton, and Valley Forge jackknife behind the Shalizhar and Halabjah, supported by F/S-44 “Star Corsair” fighters of the Tigershark Marines. Both the light hybrid cruiser Shalizhar and the destroyer Halabjah are crippled by the point-blank broadsides and Marine strafing attacks, but aft batteries of the Ankara, the Shalizhar, Halabjah, and Cyrenaica blow both port and starboard reactors clean out of the Oriskany’s hull, smacking the “Lady O” clean out of the battle. The light carrier Tarawa and torpedo corvette Daggerish line up a third frontal torpedo spread, only to find 45 more Arab League fighters rushing behind them on a murderous massed strafing run! NINETEEN League fighters are shot down, but the 26 that survive use autocannons to explode the Daggerfish's starboard engines and reactors, leaving the torpedo corvette spinning helpless and crippled through space. Has the tide turned? The Americans have lost three ships here, including their only heavy cruiser and the Oriskany herself ... 
With the ships that are left, the League realizes they will never outmaneuver the faster, more agile (and admittedly smaller) American ships. Nor do they need to, they now clearly have the advantage of weight and aerospace numbers in this battle, they just have to “defend their lead” until the Americans mount an ill-advised attack or concede defeat. The Anakara and her two remaining destroyers "hedgehog" in such a way where the Americans will find it almost impossible to get fighters or torpedoes into Ankara’s stern WITH a destroyer broadside from the Princeton and Valley Forge on the same quarter. Refusing to give up, Captain Jack Morrison takes command aboard USS Princeton and commits his Marine fighters and more Mk 48 torpedoes in a series of "hooking" attacks around the Ankara's stern, while engaging in trailing broadsides against the League destroyers ... all while staying OUT of the broadside of the Ankara. League fighters continue to assail the sterns of the American ships, shot down in dizzying numbers but pressing home their attack along with torpedoes from the Ankara. The Valley Forge takes the worst of it, hammered by the Ankara and her destroyers, while the destroyer Cyrenaica takes hits in her starboard reactors from the pin-point accurate Valley Forge and Princeton. Meanwhile, the Marines press their strafing attacks on the Ankara. The Marines take no losses for now, since the League mass drivers are busy fending off American torpedoes. However ... the Americans are RUNNING OUT of those torpedoes.
A second torpedo-fighter strike again fails to take out the Ankara! The Americans are SO close to turning the tide here! But now they’re desperately short on torpedoes and the Valley Forge takes a savage series of hits from the forward guns of the Ankara and the destroyers Samarra and Cyrenaica. Only barely does she maintain power, but she’s lost her forward magazines and ALL torpedo tubes, slashing the handful of available Mark 48s (already pitifully few) in half. Bombers make gunnery attacks on the Valley Forge, but still she stands tall (rolling a 00 on her percentile breakoff check). Meanwhile, a ray of hope shines for the Americans when their successive broadsides finally manage to power down the destroyer Cyrenaica.
The Valley Forge breaks to starboard, hoping to open the range and remain on the table as an operational warship. But she is swarmed by surviving League fighters and bombers, and her port bow is totally unshielded. Thus, USS Valley Forge is finally crippled. The Marines hit the Ankara a THIRD third time, still taking no losses, covered by the very last American Mk 48s and the last two Marine bombers that have been re-launched from the USS Tarawa. But STILL the Tigersharks just can’t quite do enough! In game terms, the Ankara now has a 5+ to cripple, but the Americans roll a FOUR! Meanwhile, with the Valley Forge down, the Princeton takes her turn as the punching bag of the Ankara's forward batteries and the broadside of the SHM Samarra (the longest-serving ship in this League battlegroup). Instantly the Princeton starts taking damage, including a torpedo wave from the four bombers the Ankara managed to launch last turn. Only because of the Tarawa's mass drivers does the Princeton somehow survive.
Turn 7: With no torpedoes or missiles coming in against the Ankara, the heavy cruiser's mass drivers are FINALLY free to engage the Marine fighters as they mount a FOURTH heroic strafing attack. Fortunately, double-elite Marines are hard to hit, especially for the destroyer Samarra which has lost some of her sensors and mass drivers. Still, the Marines can only dodge so much, and five Corsairs are destroyed going in. The five survivors press the attack, three of which hit, two of which hit critical components. The Ankara FINALLY loses power in her port engines and reactors, the ship going dark (after no less than four aerospace strafing and torpedo attacks). The Princeton has kept her supporting fire position, executing a roll to present her starboard bow instead of port bow (which has been badly damaged). Again the Princeton is hammered, but she and the Tarawa don't flinch (and admittedly neither does the Samarra) as this battle finally draws toward a close.
Turn 8: The Battle of Kayashenko 4 finally staggers to an exhausted, smoking, charred conclusion. Neither the Samarra or the Princeton have the guns, torpedoes, sensors, or maneuvering thrusters to cripple the other. The Tarawa cannot help, her torpedoes long exhausted. The surviving League fighters engage and shoot down the last two bombers of VMF/A-319, although their bombers are in turn mauled by the last American fighters and scouts. In the end, the crippling of the Ankara means this battle will TECHNICALLY shake out as a minor American victory, but only by the most slender of margins. Remember that in Darkstar, you must win by at least 5 percent or the game is considered a draw. The Americans have won by 8 percent, and only at the very end with near-suicidal fighter tactics and the very last of their torpedoes. 
Given the razor-thin margin of ... ahem ... “victory” here, I’m giving the Americans only half score for a minor victory in a 500+ point battle (normally this campaign award is 6 points, not 3. I feel the playtesting of the Damascus class and Gettysburg class both went well, I hope it’s clear that the League didn’t “take it easy” on my commanders (again, I actually have commanders on both sides of this battle), and the Arab League is no longer on the precipice of leaving the war (actually good news for @muakhah, our Arab League player, who was in danger of “winning his way out of the war” if the Arab League accepted victory terms and signed a separate peace).
Glorious. It really seems that these Damascus Heavy Cruisers are what my captains will work towards. Looking forward to seeing the stats for these beauties and the new Gettysburg class.
Looking forward to more, as always!
Thanks, @muakhah – Like we were saying before, I think the Damascus class is one of the more “traditional” of the Arab League designs. She comes out (with aerospace group) at 105 points, whereas normal heavy cruisers come out at 102 (100 for heavy cruiser + 2 scouts … Damascus as a hybrid heavy cruiser is 75 base + 30 points worth of aerospace). The aerospace group is the exact same as carried by the Almanzor class light hybrid cruiser and the Khalifa class dedicated light carrier. But since the Damascus is naturally a far larger ship, this same aerospace… Read more »
Interesting little scrap. With so many ships damaged, have the Americans overextended? Is now the time for the British to put in a good counter punch?
Indeed, @damon … I sense a British strike coming at the Americans and Russians still looming in the outer protoplanetary debris belts of the Hawking’s Star system …