DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER

SITUATION:  The “Iron Wolf” coalition of Imperial Prussia, the New Roman Alliance, Japan, and the Khitan-Tunguska Free State (Black Dragons) finds itself in dire trouble in the War of Annabel’s Star.  They still haven’t recovered from their defeat at the Battle of Tsarina Twins, and now the defeat of the New Roman Leclerc battlegroup in the outer protoplanetary debris belt of the Neu-Bremerhaven star system (Gleise 581) has left Prussian colonies in that system badly exposed to further attacks by British, Panasian League, and Russian naval forces of “Duchess Annabel’s Alliance.”  Furthermore, if Neu-Bremerhaven falls, this would open the way opens the way to the Eisenwolf Colonies of Gliese 570, the main Imperial Prussian stronghold here in the Libra-Sagittarius region.

Making matters worse, the Annabel’s Alliance has reinforced the British and Panasian naval forces already in Neu-Bremerhaven with ships from the Holy Russian Empire, namely the Suvorov battlegroup, further reinforced with the Gagarin-class light fleet carrier CPK Kamarov.  Clearly they hope to crack the Iron Wolves in Neu-Bremerhaven right away, perhaps to use the system as a springboard for invasion directly into Eisenwolf Colony itself.

Clearly the Iron Wolves have to act to redress the situation.  Although scheduled for a long-overdue refit, the Kanoya light carrier battlegroup of the Japanese Navy is sent to head off the continuing Annabel’s Alliance incursion deeper into Neu-Bremerhaven.  Pushing out of the system’s outer debris belt, the invaders’ first stop is the outer gas giant of Lehmburg.  This is where the Konoya battlegroup resolves to make the intercept.  But the reinforce Suvorov battlegroup is too strong a force for the Kanoya and her escorts to stop alone, so the Prussians agree to commit their light cruiser Rossbach.

This combined Japanese-Prussian force find the Russians  as the Suvorov task force in the eclipse shadow of the fifth moon of the Lehmburg gas giant, Lehmburg Epsilon.  As the Iron Wolves vector in, the Russians do not raise steam to escape, but instead power up weapons to engage in battle …

REPORT:  There’s no two ways to put this, the Russians just have an absurdly bad day here.  Their tactics are sound.  They set a very high speed toward the Japanese carrier force, successfully engaging them with close-range gunnery and torpedo fire before their carriers can launch too many aerospace missile and torpedo strikes against them.

Likewise, the Komarov gets her strike wing launched quickly, and scores a solid torpedo and aerospace missile barrage on the Kanoya.

But nothing goes right.  The torpedoes under perform, and even those that hit just fail to strike vital areas of the ship.  Despite having closed the range and despite upgraded gunnery targeting and crews, the plasma projectors and rail guns of the Syekyra and Rusalka just can’t hit anything.  Where the Suvorov scores hits, the explosions cavitate back out into space or into areas already destroyed by prior torpedo hits.  Even when the Komarov lands part of her Tupolev Tu-97 “Zvesburya” (Star Storm) bomber wing to rearm, a broadside from the Rossbach actually hits the starboard hangar, venting the compartment as the bombers are being re-armed and setting off gigantic internal explosions of aerospace ordinance in the hangar itself.

Not to take anything away from the Japanese or the light cruiser Rossbach, their tactics and performance in this battle are first-rate.  The scrappy little frigates Yurakazu and Tanakasha slug it out with Russian destroyers twice their size, and although the Tanakasha is knocked out, the Yurakazu fights on with nearly superhuman resilience, absorbing punishment that should have crippled a light cruiser yet somehow she remains operational.  The Konoya is eventually damaged to the point where she has to break off, and much of her fighter group is shot down by Komarov’s MiG-103 “Tunguska” aerospace strike fighters, but really it’s the only success the Russians score that day.

The surviving Russians soon break off, again swallowing bitter defeat and giving up their push into the moons of Lehmburg or the other outer planets of the Neu-Bremerhaven system, falling back again to the tankers and support ships that Annabel’s Alliance has staged in Gliese 581’s outer debris disc and cometary halo.

SCORING: Remaining in the battle area, the Iron Wolves have the light cruiser Rossbach (70 points), light carrier Sagae (28 points), assault frigate Tanakasha (24 points), plus three regular fighters, eight regular bombers (22 points), ten elite fighters, four elite bombers (42 points) bombers, plus four regular and seven regular scouts and two elite scouts (14 points) = 200 points, Russians have 9 scouts.  Iron Wolves win by 191 points, Major Victory.

Just a quick look at how terrible my luck was (playing the Russians).  In this last image, you can see the green “3” marker heading behind the small Japanese frigate (FF2) – that’s the Akashi-class strike frigate Yurakazu.  I started with 12 torpedoes, but mass drivers of the Yurakasu and the Rossbach (Prussian “CL1” ship) shot down most of them.  Only three remain, hence the “3” counter.

No worries, Class III torpedoes have a base to hit of 7, and the aft ECM / Shields of this ship are 4, upgraded to 5.  So with 7 – 5 = 2, my odds aren’t great (I have to roll a 2 or less on a d10), but with three tries, I hope to get at least one of them.  One is all it will take, these are pretty powerful torpedoes and the armor of the Yurakazu has already been pretty badly hammered.

Not only do all three of my torpedoes miss, but they miss with 10s, the worst possible roll.  THREE TENS!  Literally a one-in-a-thousand bad luck roll!

Like it said in the write-up, it just wasn’t the Russians’ day.