DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER

The Darkstar battle between myself and community member @davehawes – played online on Saturday, December 1, continues.

So we’ve seen where my cruiser battlegroup of the Holy Russian Empire and Dave’s aerospace carrier battlegroup of the Royal Navy have been slugging it out so far.  Each battlegroup has lost its frigate, my CPK Volkhov crippled by a long-range x-ray laser that cut through my portside reactors, and his HMS Fergusson that took a 7-GW rail gun through the bridge.

Meanwhile, my flagship (Konstantine class light cruiser CPK Basilov) has been heavily mauled by British aerospace torpedoes,  missiles, and gravitic torpedoes launched from HMS Raven and the destroyer HMS Singapore, losing her starboard side engines and taking damage all the way up into her aft hangars (Oh no, the captain’s yacht was just taken out)!

At the same time, I’ve managed to land some P-500 “Plamya” (Flame) torpedo hits on the fantail of the Singapore, missing her engines unfortunately not taking out some of her sensors and aft mass drivers.

Now we’re looking at the movement phase of Turn 3, where I’ve dove toward the planet in an attempt to screen myself, or at least remove a little of Dave’s freedom to maneuver his fighters and torpedoes.  It’s not going to work, as his eight fighters and a full torpedo spread head toward Basilov’s damaged fantail.  My mass drivers have already smacked down four of his eight fighters, but the four that are left are ready to start a “Star Wars-style” strafing run on my damaged ship.  Meanwhile, my gunners are lining up a second broadside on HMS Singapore, while the remaining two bombers of HMS Osprey can’t quite catch up to their accelerating carrier to land!  Hey, wait for us! 

So like I said,  I have shot down four Supermarine Starfires, saving the rest of my mass drivers for shooting down the torpedoes.  But the Basilov has damaged sensors, don’t forget.  Still, the destroyer CPK Kortik is able to knock down some torpedoes as well.  Not nearly enough, however . . .

Meanwhile, my own torpedo spread is streaking in on the damaged stern of the Singapore.  That destroyer has also taken sensor damage, while the HMS Raven tries to  help as well, as well as five British scouts shooting down some more torpedoes.  The real threat, however, is the broadside from the 7GW rail guns of the Basilov.  The range is 1800 kilometers, perfect for this caliber of gun.

Very bad news for the HMS Singapore.  Out of my ten torpedoes, only two survive mass driver fire, scout intercepts, and shields, but they hit the fantail hard.  The purple boxes show their impact points, the cavitation damage extends forward through compartments of the ship.  Starboard engines take a hit!  The second torpedo hits the aft cargo bay, exploding forward and smashing out the destroyer’s aft syglex emitter, the whole weapons turret blown off the ship and into space!

But the real damage comes from the double broadside delivered from the destroyer Kortik  and the light cruiser Basilov.  One of the Basilov’s plasma projectors hits in Column 1 (green box) spreading left and right (fore and aft) like a flamethrower.  With this armor this shallowed, I then follow up with a hammering of five rail-gun hits (three from the Basilov, two from the Kortik – red impact points).  These drill deep into the Singapore’s starboard quarter, knocking out more sensors, maneuvering thrusters, the troop bay (half the marines are probably killed, wounded, or trying to put out fires).  I then hit the starboard side reactors, the blast carrying through into portside reactors as well.

So three critical (red) boxes of the ship have been hit.  Destroyers have a 7+ target to cripple, -3 crit boxes hit = a chance of 4+.  I roll a 6, and the HMS Singapore loses power, adrift and dead in space.

This moment of Russian victory is short lived, however.  Even as the Singapore is being hammered, so is the Basilov.  The first attack to hit are the those four fighters on a gunnery run.  Despite my shields (still up, amazingly), they score one hit that happens to hand on my med bay!  So my casualties from engineering have made it to med bay only to be machine-gunned by British fighters!

That’s a war crime, Dave!  You can bet I’ll be contacting the Hague about that!

Far worse is yet to come.  Four gravitic torpedoes (all from HMS Raven) hit on the red-colored boxes.  Aft shields finally die, aft mass drivers are knocked out, portside reactors are gone, portside reactors take a hit.  Cavitation damage ripples forward through the ship.  Finally comes a torpedo hit again in MED BAY!  The blast tears up through the center of the ship, damaging (but not destroying) the bridge, then setting off an explosion in the forward magazine!

Eight critical boxes have now been hit.  The Target to Cripple a light cruiser is 10+, -8 crit boxes = a 2+ roll on a d6.  It’s a pretty easy roll, which Dave makes with no problem.  The Basilov is crippled.  Even if she wasn’t, this ship would now be at 60% thrust, -1 from initiative for the bridge hit (for a net penalty of -3 on initiative), -1 to hit, -1 mass driver bracket, no aft shields, 75% chance for a forced break off . . .

In all, 31 days will be needed to bring this ship back, that’s after she’s towed back to a base, assuming she makes her ship recover check at all . . .

Still more bad news is to come.  The Singpore’s last volley scores two powerful 8 MgKv laser hits on the port quarter of the destroyer Kortik, then Dave rolls very well on his hit location, and actually knocks down the port quarter shields.

Here we are at the end of movement of Turn 4.  The Basilov, Singapore, Fergusson, and Volkhov are all adrift, careening through space at their last powered heading and velocity.  You can see why it’s so important that you never end your turn facing toward a planet, moon, or asteroid.  You can see where my last ship, the destroyer Kortik, is now inverted, trying to hide her damaged (and unshielded) port quarter from the British.  Hiding it from the HMS Raven is easy enough, hiding it from the torpedoes and remaining fighters is not.

However, those disabled shields are really the result of some very lucky shooting from a ship that is no longer operational.  If I can knock down enough of these torpedoes, the ones that hit will probably not do enough damage to cripple the Kortik outright.  Meanwhile, these are practically the last torpedoes the Raven has.  Half her  bombers are shot down, the two that are left still haven’t been able to land to rearm.  Four fighters are gone.  My guns meanwhile, can shoot all day . . .

Believe it or not, the British, particularly the HMS Raven, are actually in a spot of trouble here . . .