DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER

The Darkstar battle between myself and @davehawes . . . the first translatlantic Darkstar game run on-line via web conference . . . concludes.

When we left off, this hard-fought battle was at last boiling down to a sizzling and tense finale.  One way or another, both my cruiser battlegroup of the Holy Russian Empire and Dave’s light aerospace group were rapidly reaching different breaking points.  So far, the British and Russians have traded frigates, each knocking out the other’s smallest escort ships straight away (HMS Fergusson and CPK Volkhov).  A massive British torpedo spread and aerospace bomber and fighter strike launched off the light carrier HMS Raven heavily damaged my flagship Basilov (an aging Konstantine class light cruiser), while my much heavier guns (I have no real aerospace group of my own) hammered the sleek, advance Falkands class destroyer HMS Singapore.  After taking 50% losses among their fighters and bombers, the British were able to finally cripple the Basilov, but not before her 7-gigawatt rail guns and P-500 “Plamya” torpedoes savaged the Singapore.  Both ships are left burning and adrift in space, leaving only the British light carrier HMS Raven and the Russian gun destroyer Kortik (Sonvya class).

The question is, can my guns overcome British aerospace superiority?

Short answer, hell yes.  Dave has already lost two of his bombers and four or his fighters, a full half of his aerospace strike group.  He hasn’t been able to land his remaining two bombers yet, the Raven keeps accelerating out of their reach in order to keep my guns at maximum distance.  To make matters worse, Raven is almost out of torpedoes.  Her bow tubes are now empty, she has one more spread left in her aft tubes and then that’s it.

I should have this game in the bag, to be honest, except for one thing.  On Turn 3, the Singapore’s last volley of 8 megakelvin lasers hither port quarter perfectly, both digging into the exact same place just deep enough to knock out my shields port quarter shields.

So as the Raven continues to pull away (she is a aerospace craft carrier, after all, she has no business closing to gunnery range of a heavy Russian destroyer), I have the Kortik  accelerate into a port turn away from the planet, rolling her over in an attempt to screen my unshielded port quarter.

Here we see the fateful moment.  These six blue torpedoes are almost the last warheads Raven can launch at me.  Her four fighters are also coming in.  I have to shoot my mass drivers at the torpedoes to thin them out, Dave has the range to send these torpedoes around my ship to hit her in the unshielded port quarter (along with four fighters on gunnery strafing runs).  I won’t lie, this attack will be chancy, not  having that port quarter shield is terribly worrisome.  But the odds are with me, and if I can just survive this last torpedo spread, I’m 95% sure to squeak out a win.   

Meanwhile, my torpedoes are racing in against the Raven.  I’ll also be unloading a pretty serious broadside on her, although Dave has carefully maneuvered his ship to a range of 11 hexes.  This is just far enough to drop my chance to hit against his shields from a 4 to a 3.  Also, Kortik may be a fearsome destroyer, but she’s just a destroyer all the same.  Still, this is only Turn 4.  And if she survives that torpedo spread, I can hit HMS Raven again on Turn 5, and Turn 6, and Turn 7, and Turn 8 . . . until she’s crippled or leaves the battle area.  Either way, I win.

Note HMS Singapore soaring by at a speed of 21 kilometer per second, trailing a sheet of burning atmosphere.  Also, the derelict Volkhov is spinning out of control, threading the needle between those debris asteroids on her way out into deep interplanetary space, probably launching lifeboats and rescue beacons.

I’m not gonna lie, the British do really well here . . . and just like that, the game turns.  Here is the WRS for the destroyer Kortik.  Yellow is the damage done in previous turns, you can see where HMS Singapore took out Kortik’s port quarter shields.  Okay, I shot down five of his six torpedoes (good roll on the mass driver table), leaving only one torpedo left.  His four fighters scored two confirmed hits, but these wound up landing too far forward (column 1).  So it’s literally down to that last torpedo.

It will almost certainly hit, as this part of my ship has no shielding.  Sure enough, it hits.

But where?  Sure, he might knock down Crew Facilities, Maneuvering Thrusters, etc . . .

Or he could roll a 4 on his d4 for hit location, sailing the torpedo right down the hole where his two lasers hit last turn.  The warhead explodes inside my Aft Weapons compartment, cavitating through both reactor rooms and down into the starboard engine.

How lucky was that?  I’ve now lost three critical boxes, reducing my 7+ cripple target for a destroyer to a 4+.  So Dave has to roll 4+ on a d6, it’s literally a 50/50 chance.

He rolls a 5.  The Kortik is crippled . . . and that’s game.

Now technically the Kortic gets its return fire on the Raven.  But Raven’s mass drivers and scouts have shot down all my torpedoes, and my guns can’t do this much in one turn against brand new armor.  I scratch the paint a little, but that’s about it.

So the British have the HMS Raven still operational (20 points), 2 bombers and 4 fighters (12 points) and 5 scouts (5 points) for a total score of 37.  I have 1 point (1 scout).  A +36 point win = 31.6% margin of a 117-point game, giving the British a solid (but minor) victory (40% is required for a “major” victory in campaign point terms).

In all, I feel this experiment was a success.  I might redesign some of the playing pieces, particularly for torpedoes and aerospace craft, just to make them a little easier to  handle especially for a remote player.   But in all this game shook out pretty well.  The margin in points seems a little high, but carefully looking at the actual course of events shows that if Kortik had survived that last torpedo hit (odds were only 25% it would hit in that vulnerable location, then a 50% roll for survival, yielding an aggregate 12.5% chance of being knocked out . . . and she was) – she would have been able to pepper the Raven for the rest of the game with near impunity.  It would have been a “soggy” end, but almost certainly a Russian win.

As a designer, any time the game comes close (especially for a new player). I’m happy.

So that wraps up this game.  Next I’ll be rolling out some of the ships requested by people who’ve been supporting my PayPal donation pool for the Darkstar rules set.

And yes, still chipping away on those rules. All “to hit” procedures are done, illustrated, etc., I’m now stuck deep into applying damage.  After that it’s just Resolution Phase, a few notes on constructing and scoring scenarios, and rules are done!  Then comes the fun part, chewing through 20 or so of my favorite classes, making sure at least five or so of these factions are well represented.

Hope you liked the battle report!  And please pass your congrats to @davehawes for not only taking the plunge and playing Darkstar, but being the first to do it online, and having the guts to start his Darkstar play with the extra complexity of an aerospace carrier!