Persei-Aries War Resumes
Battleship at Avezzano (99 Hercules Gamma), Anglo-Japanese vs. Russo-Romans
FROM: ADVISORY OFFICE, UN HERCULES SCS REGIONAL COLONIAL CENTER
20:20 SOL GMT, 29 APRIL 2522
BREAKAUTH: 181072.18J
CLEARANCE: NATIONAL COMMAND AUTHORITY
SUBJ: ANGLO-JAPANESE ASSAULT ON CATANIA (99 Hercules Gamma)
The situation in the Third Hercules War is reaching a breaking point.
The Americans, previously humbled and sidelined by the British, have regained their footing and are about to “cash out” of the conflict with new holdings both in 99 Hercules and Gliese 649. The latter may be particularly bad for the British, as an American shipping stronghold in Gliese 639 would allow them to bypass the 99 Hercules, thus deflating the tariff revenue the British hoped to squeeze from the Americans with their 50-year lease so graciously granted by the British in the Treaty of Zubrin.
The Americans have also thrashed the Japanese at the recent Battle of Bleeding Edge (Gliese 649 Gamma-19), thus weakening Britain’s staunchest and most powerful ally in the Third Hercules War.
Britain’s other ally, the Arab League, has also been bested by the Holy Russian Empire. The Russians now have an entrenched foothold in the Khaizan Caliphate, and any immediate Arab League naval action will have to be directed toward ejecting this Russian presence before they can help the British against the Russians directly.
Perhaps most ominously, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Krasnaya Nadhezda and New Roman Archbishop of Catania have reaffirmed their new alliance, with Russian warships now staged in the Catania colonies (Gliese 623). Russian destroyers and torpedo corvettes have also been detected in the UN “Redemption” Mandate at 99 Hercules, specifically at the Avezzano Colony (99 Hercules Gamma). This is obviously a move to threaten British possession of Kayashenko, the 99 Hercules gas giant the British took from the Russians after a protracted campaign earlier in 2521-22.
In short, the Russians continue their efforts to forestall the inevitable British hammerblow on their Krasnaya Nadhezda (Red Hope) colonies at 72 Hercules by creating as many distractions as possible among British allies and problems along British flanks.
Finally, the British have had enough. Pairing two of their most powerful warships in the Hercules Rim with two of the most powerful Japanese ships currently operational, an aggressive move is made directly for the heart of New Roman holdings in 99 Hercules. For the British this includes the heavy cruiser HMS Agamemnon and light cruiser Retribution. For the Japanese it is the heavy cruiser IJN Kama and light cruiser Sendai Byo. The mission is simple, smash into the heart of the New Roman holdings at 99 Hercules. Cripple, destroy, or drive off any naval presence there, thus clearing the way for two Fearless class planetary assault ships to drop in elements of 3rd Marine Commando Brigade and 5th Para Brigade, outright seizing the colonies and installation on the terrestrial planet of Avezzano (99 Hercules Gamma) and its two moons.
Clearly the British aim is to crush any threat posed by the Coalition of Eagles in 99 Hercules once and for all, while also dealing a heavy blow to the blossoming Russo-Roman alliance and shutting down any additional danger to the rear of a final attack on 72 Hercules.
Unfortunately the New Romans have been building up for a climactic entry to the Third Hercules War for some time. While the Americans, Russians, Japanese, British, and Arab League battered each other senseless, the Romans were quietly bringing in ships from the Core and other sectors of Known Space, only opening hostilities when they felt they had an overwhelming force. Most significantly this includes the gigantic 347,000-ton Constantine class battleship NRS Leo Magnus, arriving at Avezzano three weeks ago after a Darkstar voyage of 117 days. Now screened by aforementioned Russian destroyers and torpedo corvettes (CPK Syekyra, Rusalka, and K-98, all part of Task Force “Admiral Lazarev”), the Roman dreadnaught’s presence unmistakably underscores this renewed Russo-Roman cooperation in the Hercules Rim.
For now, however, this hideously-powerful Russo-Roman force is alerted to the rapid approach of British and Japanese Darkstar waves, and raises steam to meet the threat. The New Roman battleship and her screen will meet the Anglo-Japanese cruiser force at the second moon of Avezzano, joining what is the largest battle to date in the Third Hercules War.
BRITISH: @damon
JAPANESE: @rasmus
RUSSO-ROMANS: @oriskany
ASSAULT VICTORY CONDITIONS (595 points)
The general situation of the Third Hercules War at the end of April, 2522. With a combined Anglo-Japanese smash into the New Roman holdings at the UN “Redemption” Mandate at 99 Hercules (specifically the planet Avezzano / 99 Hercules Gamma), the British hope to shut down the Coalition of Eagles for good in 99 Hercules, weaken the Russo-Roman wing of the Coalition of Eagles, and quell any flank or rear threats for the intended drive on Krasanaya Nadezda (“Red Hope”, 72 Hercules). There’s just one problem. After almost four months in a Darkstar wave, the Romans have managed to bring in a BATTLESHIP.
The two fleets meet at the second moon of the Avezzano planet (99 Hercules Gamma-2), roughly the size of the planet Mercury, named Lucianna di Genoa for a duchess of terrestrial Italy. Although gigantic, the Leo Magnus is surprisingly fast for a ship her size, her guns pin-point accurate and heavily upgraded in hitting power and range. In short, a single hit from her 21-teravolt EPCs and 90 eHz syglex emitters can cleave clean through the armor of a light cruiser, even at a range of over 9500 kilometers (the distance between London and Capetown, a fact she quickly brings home to the hapless light cruiser Sendai Byo. Even here, at the comfortable “medium” range of 5000+ km, she carves open Sendai Byo’s port bow like a Christmas turkey, instantly hitting magazines, burning mass driver turrets out of the hull, smashing open torpedo bays, crippling sensor suites and incinerating maneuvering thrusters. It’s frankly pure luck that spares Sendai Byo’s bridge, otherwise the 83,000 ton cruiser would be smacked out of the battle in the opening salvo. The British and Japanese respond, aiming guns at the little K-98. At this range the 15,000-ton corvette is almost impossible to hit, but these British and Japanese crews are expert shots, and K-98 is crippled. It seems like a small victory, but the K-98 has twelve P-500 torpedo tubes, double-upgraded with the most advanced electronic warfare suites anywhere in the Holy Russian Empire. With that battleship to deal with, the last thing these cruisers need to worry about is swarms of Russian torpedoes, too. 
As the Leo Magnus continues to keep the intruders in her broadside, hammering the Sendai Byo again. The Japanese accelerate and dive right toward the Roman behemoth, somewhat leaving the British behind a bit. But the Japanese are trying to set up an eventual angle behind the Leo Magnus, and also present heavily-fortified bows to those terrifying guns. The Sendai reels again, yet still remains in the fight, although a fresh forward facing of shielding and armor is now reduced to a twisted, flaming ruin. The Russian destroyers hedge ahead of the Leo Magnus, pivoting to port to keep torpedo tubes facing the enemy. The British execute a shallow S-turn, keeping port broadsides to the enemy, now hammering on the destroyer Syekyra, still trying to chew down that enemy torpedo load. Again they and the Japanese are successful, and the Russian destroyer’s bow, forward torpedo tubes, magazine, and finally bridge are smashed open, leaving the ship a crippled wreck. 
The Leo Magnus finally turns away from the moon, putting a THIRD broadside in to the long-suffering Sendai Byo, just as she and the Kama finally get into good broadside range on the Roman battleship. The Kama is particularly well-positioned, able to tear open Leo Magnus’ port quarter with 18-teravolt EPVs and 12-megakelvin lasers (the biggest caliber in Known Space). Although the Kama can get through Leo Magnus’ shields easily enough, her absurdly thick armor plating is another matter. But while the Agamemnon and Retribution hammer on the Leo Magnus’ port bow in a truly withering barrage of lasers, rail guns, and especially 15-teravolt EPCs, the Sendai Byo can finally take no more. Although she’s rolled over on her back to present her starboard side rather than her fatally-wounded port side, the cruel magnitude of the Leo Magnus’ broadside all but tears the sleek light cruiser in half. Although she will eventually return to service, she will need 119 days in towing and dry dock (66 internal boxes hit, +50% for being crippled, +20 days for towing) to again stand ready to fly the Rising Sun. 
The Leo Magnus peels away from Lucianna di Genoa, her grav rudder and maneuvering thrusters pulling hard against the moon’s gravity, the battleship rolling on her back to present starboard armor and shielding to the three remaining cruisers (stop me when this starts reminding people of the 1939 Battle of the River Plate). But it can’t prevent the Kama and Agamemnon from edging behind her, their powerful combined broadsides how targeting Leo Magnus’ quarter. At last the dreadnaught begins to shudder from hard hits to her starboard engines and reactors, even as her broadside ... now delivered at the punishing range of just 1400 kilometers ... positively incinerates the Agamemnon’s port side. Making matters worse, the destroyer Rusalka has come hard about to cross Agamemnon’s stern, her rail guns and plasma projectors packing a startling punch at such close range. 
Still pulling against gravity, the Leo Magnus now makes a hard jackknife turn to starboard (turning “left,” remember she is inverted), determined to keep her engines and reactors clear of enemy guns for as long as possible. HMS Retribution dives down to rejoin the fray, combining with Agamemnon and Kama to all fire into Leo Magnus’ starboard bow. This is actually the first time all Allied ships have been lined up against the same facing of the dreadnaught, and even now they can’t fire full broadsides because of their own positioning. But aft batteries of the Agamemnon and Retribution open up on the Rusalka, inflicting enough damage to force her captain to break off the action. Forward batteries combine with the Kama to hit the Leo Magnus, hammering into sensors and mass drivers, trying to knock out some of her huge turrets or even better, her bridge. But the sheer size of the battleship is just too much to shoot through right away, even if both her broadsides are now masses of glowing, twisted metal and jets of burning escaping atmosphere. 
The Leo Magnus turns hard to starboard and again dives toward Lucianna de Genoa, hoping to keep her worst damage screened against the moon’s bulk. Her captain, Read Admiral Giuseppe Maccia, hopes to at least for the British and Japanese to dive dangerously close to the moon to get at his starboard side. It’s a dare that Lord Commodore Edward Cavendish and Captain Seizo Yamamoto are happy to accept, with perilous dives and jackknife turns that put broadsides right into Leo Magnus’ starboard broadside. However, the Agamemnon is also fatally close to the battleship, literally at POINT BLANK range directly abeam her full broadside. It’s a fire phase that Agamemnon does not survive, the mighty Trafalgar-class heavy cruiser finally blown wide open and left a burning, crippled, spiraling mass of flames. Her chief engineer has to eject her reactors before they detonate, setting off a blinding fusion explosion that puts a tiny, momentary new star in the 99 Hercules system. The Retribution can’t quite join the main broadside, her maneuvering thrusters largely crippled and harried by Russian scouts and torpedoes. All British scouts are shot down by the Leo Magnus as they try to fend off these Russian torpedoes, just one more indication of how desperate this battle is becoming. However, all is not in vain. Although she is STILL not crippled, the Leo Magnus now has holes blown deep through her midships superstructure, including medical bays, life support systems, troops bays, both starboard mass drivers, and forward hangar. Three of her sensor suites are also gone, leaving her half-blind as well. At last Rear-Admiral Maccia makes the call. It’s time to break off. 
Here’s the thing. Darkstar “assault score” games end on Turn 8 at the latest. Ships that are forced to “break off” after taking a certain amount of “core damage” (internal, crew-heavy components and thus crew casualties) and then failing the corresponding percentile roll are must leave the table in good faith. Basically, the ship has failed a “morale check.” But such ships are still operational and can even use full weapons as they “cover their retreat.” The formal break-off rules are as follows: A ship that is breaking off must (a) not decelerate, and (b) MUST END their movement phase, if it is in any way legal or possible, at least one hex further from the closest enemy operational warship then they were when the ship starts its movement phase. Now here’s the onion ... IF Leo Magnus technically remains on the table at the end of Turn 8, she counts for half victory points – so if she can legally remain on the table for two more turns, the Romans can probably pull off a draw or even a narrow victory. For now, she was six hexes away from HMS Retribution at the start of her movement. She must end her turn at least seven hexes away from the closest operational enemy ship. The only way to pull this off is to accelerate by 2 to 7, which she reluctantly does (remember, she can’t decelerate). Guns keep firing, and yes, now the HMS Retribution must also break off. That makes three warships (Leo Magnus, Retribution, Rusalka) that are on the table and “running away.” But ships that “don’t make it” are still worth half points, and note I am BARELY ABLE to keep Leo Magnus on the very last hex on the table! So this game is still up in the air! 
Finally, it comes to a close. The incessant attacks by Japanese scouts finally manage to CRIPPLE the Rusalka - they’ve been hounding the open wound on her unshielded port quarter for a while now, with -3 sensor boxes hit I haven’t been able to shoot them down and they finally landed the lucky hit. Rusalka is no longer breaking off, she is CRIPPLED, and thus worth no points. I earnestly try to keep Leo Magnus on the table. All I have to do is make a port turn (again, inverted) in hex 0731, come to heading 270, and skirt along the bottom of the board. This gives me one more turn to broadside the Retribution and probably cripple her, AND force Kama to come down and engage Leo in a desperate hope to knock her out for good. Yes this is the last turn of the game, if Leo Magnus can LEGALLY make this turn, she’s on the board at the end of Turn 8 and Damon and Rasmus HAVE to kill her or lose the game. I have two thrust points (damaged maneuvering thrusters) and a velocity of 7 (not allowed to hit the brakes). I am currently 8 hexes from the Retribution (Hex 0923, at the “beginning” of her red movement track). I make the turn, and wind up 9 hexes from the Retribution (Hex 0531). That’s it! I win! Except gravity takes its effect, pulling me one hex closer to the Lucianna de Genoa moon (Hex 0631). This would leave me at 8 hexes from Retribution, the same distance I started, which means ... that is NOT a legal move. Therefore, with no LEGAL way to meet the “breaking off” requirements, by strict interpretation of the Darkstar Rules 4.9.4.C and 5.2.1.A (and of course not turning to heading 150 and crashing into the moon) I have to leave the table. This means the Leo Magnus counts for NO points (she’s hugely expensive) and thus the game shakes out as a thick British-Japanese victory. But MAN, guys ... this one was CLOSER than the score suggests. But for the GRAVITY effects on ONE HEX, if Leo Magnus had just ONE MORE HEX to work with, she stays on the table for half points (209) and I get a score of 218 to Damon-Rasmus’ 220. That’s a margin of 3/10 of 1%, and per Darkstar Rule 5.2.1.C.i (p 98), a score has to margin out at least +/-5% or it’s a draw. So this game came down to the gravity effects of ONE HEX.
The Battle of Avezzano is over. This was one for the record books, folks, and no mistake. The crippled K-98 will later be chased down and finished off by the same Japanese scouts that crippled the destroyer Rusalka, but her skipper survives and will be rescued. The damage control fight to save the Agamemnon will be epic (it will be forever one of those “miracles” in the Royal Navy that she survived), while the Sendai Byo will be in dry dock for almost four months. Retribution is limping out of the battle area, while even the Kama bears deep scars of the fight. Meanwhile, the Leo Magnus left the table under her own power, but will admittedly be in Catania shipyard for 147 days (Damon and Rasmus inflicted 147 boxes of internal damage on her) after the 89 days it will take her 9th-wave Darkstar drive to get her the 39 light-years to Catania. So in all we’re looking at 236 days, basically eight months . . . she’s realistically out of the war. Meanwhile the Marines and Paras land on Luciana di Genoa and seize the moon’s orbital and ground installations, and after the 30% “political shift” was rolled (% chance determined by the size of the battle and its outcome), it’s determined that Roman Alliance is forced to sign the Avezzano colony over to Great Britain and Japan entirely. With their new campaign score of -8, it’s clear the Romans are a hair’s breadth away from giving up on this war altogether, their involvement as disastrous as it has been brief. Now we’ll see if the Arab League can win a battle against he Russians this week, and if so, 72 Hercules is at last lined up for a three-way smash from the UK, the Japanese, and the Arab League, all at once! 
Fun game! Talk about a NARROW victory though. I love battle ships, but the danger is so many points are tied to one ship. That is one of the reasons why I never upgraded from a Heavy Cruiser.
The problem, @gladesrunner , is that battleships are played so infrequently that we’re still getting used to them. After eight years of Darkstar they’ve appeared in maybe 15-20 games. The killer omission is an ESCORT fleet. Usually by the time a game gets big enough to include a battleship (280-400 points), few want to add another 200+ points for an escort fleet. I was actually really happy with the result of this one. As reviewed in the description, the balance on this game really game down to the last moment, the last turn, the last hex, the gravity effects WITHIN… Read more »
Thanks Jim, I emailed you about trying desperately to get a little payback against those Russians! Third times the charm.
No worries, @muakhah. Cool deal, I will set up a Skype call for my 8PM Wednesday / your 8AM Thursday. We’ll give Battlegroup Mutamid a chance to oust these Russians from the Holy Space of the Khaizan Caliphate! 😀
All ships will be ready, even those crippled last time, because TWO games have passed in the interim.*
*rough campaign rules, if a ship was crippled but survived last time, it has to “sit out” the next game while in drydock undergoing repairs.
It was a good game, at first I thought the battleship would wipe the floor with us. With most of her big guns at the back, it made the usual tactic of stern raking too dangerous, so withering her down across the front arcs and trying to stay out of her broadside seemed the most viable tactic. My doubt was the lack of punch from the British guns, accurate, but not really heavy damage with each hit. Still, it worked out in the end and was a challenging game.
Thanks, @damon. Indeed I am very very glad the battleship “seemed scary.” In previous Battleship games (including one at the end of Duchess Annabel’s War where you and @gladesrunner positively stomped a Tirpitz class) battleships often came across as lumbering white elephants … which I guess they were in naval history … unless they have a proper escort fleet and aerospace cover. Of course aerospace cover wasn’t much of an issue in this one since there really wasn’t a powerful aerospace wing. But with two upgraded Sovnya class destroyers and a K-56 class, I tried to give Leo Magnus at… Read more »
Finally, my laptop allows me to comment!
Its always beautiful when the big ships make it onto the table!
As Jim has said we have seen the Destroyers and light cruisers in tons of games but rarely the battleships. And when we do they are usually upgraded which pushes their points up even more!
Thanks, @muakhah – Indeed battleships are rare. Only one player, @aras – has progressed his commanders to take command of one (admittedly, @Gladesrunner passed on it, preferring to stick to her Iron Duke class heavy cruiser). @aras has the Scharnhorst class pocket battleship KMS Von der Tann. The only “player” battleship in the Darkstar ‘verse at the moment. Also the fasted battleship in Known Space (can keep up even with KMS Agamemnon. Honestly I think my favorite ship type is the light cruiser. Most of my favorite classes are all light cruisers, US San Antonio class, Russian Kutusov class, Japanese… Read more »
Maybe it’s just envy but I seem to always be looking at what heavy cruisers can do with the right upgrades.
Excellent, nail biting finish had me on the edge of my seat. Well played all participants.
Epic, @gremlin! Glad you liked it, and glad you’re following this project!