DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER
Heavy Cruiser Clash - British v. Imperial Japan (Damon v. Rasmus)
The Japanese and British are at it again, it seems …
So we had @damon and his trusty Trafalgar class heavy cruiser HMS Bellerophon, along with his new destroyer HMS Terpsichore (RIP HMS Essex) looking to take on @rasmus and his Japanese. But this time, Rasmus decided to set aside his IJN Sendai Byo light cruiser to try one of the new Katana class heavy cruiser, IJN Kama. To balance the game, I added the oft-crippled but never destroyed Akashi class strike frigate IJN Urakaze and a sister ship. IJN Sakita.
So we’re looking at 172 point game! No carriers, no aerospace craft, no landing ships …
Just a very unstable red dwarf less than 30 light-seconds away …
That’s right, this battle takes place close to a mineral- and heavy-metal rich planetismal that is desperately close to the systems’ red dwarf planet star. These stars, while cool (in stellar terms) are typically electromagnetically unstable, and this one is no exception. At the beginning of combat phase, I’m rolling a d6 to see what the “space weather” is like that turn.
Special rules from the scenario:
BATTLE TAKES PLACE AT A TINY DWARF PLANET EXTREMELY CLOSE TO A RED DWARF STAR
NO GRAVITY – PLANETISMAL IS BARELY 2500 KM ACROSS
(SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN PLUTO)
SHOOTING INTO or THROUGH CLOUD (IONIZED PARTICLES BURNED OFF THE PLANETISMAL’S SURFACE)
-1 TO HIT
NOT CUMULATIVE PER HEX
CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS
D6 BEGINNING OF EACH FIRE PHASE:
1 = NO EFFECT
2 = NO EFFECT
3 = NO EFFECT
4 = -1 TO HIT
5 = -1 TO ALL SHIELDS
6 = -1 TO ALL HIT AND TO ALL SHIELDS
Both sides begin their approach, from the designated entry zones shown by the blue and orange arrows along the top and bottom of the screens
This is the end of Turn 3, both sides are being very reluctant to close quickly, hoping to ping away at least one of each others' destroyers or frigates before closing to gunnery range. Note the clouds of ionized particles (blasted off the planetismal by the freakishly powerful solar wind here) provide -1 to enemy to hit rolls if they have to shoot into or through at least one hex of clouds. 
It's not until Turn 4 that we drop out of maximum range brackets. By now Rasmus is realizing that he frigates won't be able to shoot pretty much anything, the little ships' guns hit hard enough but just won't reach. So the two frigates accelerate toward the British, firing full frontal torpedo spreads as they go.
At last things get up close and personal. Again Rasmus seems to be rolling out his patented "send in the Akashi frigates for point-blank fire, while the heavy ship sits back and lobs in heavy salvoes. I'll lose the frigates but take out at least one heavier enemy ship in the process ..." Hey, it's been working for him so far ... Sure enough, it seems to at least sort of work here ... He indeed loses the two frigates, but also takes out the HMS Terpsichore. Thats an even 50-point exchange ... HOWEVER, IJN Sakito also opens a nasty gash in the port quarter of the HMS Bellerophon, which the Kama also adds to with long range gunnery from the bottom of the mapsheet.
Rasmus winds up winning the battle for the Japanese. The damage to the Terpsichore is enough to leave her crippled on Turn 7. Meanwhile, Bellerophon's rake of the Kama's stern doesn't hit very much, because previous damage to the Bellerophon has damaged her sensors and he's having a hard time shooting through the EM interference from the star. The Sendai Byo, meanwhile, causes just enough damage to force another breakoff resolution check (core damage - crew casualties), which the "Billy Ruffian" sadly fails. She's forced to set a course off the table, which will mean her scenario points will only count half toward the British score (still operational, but retiring).
The British warships at the end of the game. You can see where the "Billy Ruffian's" damage on the starboard quarter was critical, piercing into gray "core areas" where most of the crew are when the ship is at general quarters. Hits here trigger die rolls, if your ship fails the roll, the captain is compelled to retire (in other words, the ship "fails a morale check"). The HMS Terpsichore, on the other hand, was hit by EPCs straight through the bridge. The ship and captain will have to make survival / recovery checks. Damon has since survived / won enough battles to buy Commander's Luck, and gets a certain amount of re-roll chances on these checks, which saves the Terpsichore from being scuttled, picked off by Japanese corvettes, or even captured. 
Bridge hits have also crippled both Japanese Akashi-class frigates. You can see how fast these little ships go down. They're cheap and cheerful, though, and can bring a stinging punch to the game if used with numbers and imagination. Just don't get too attached. :D 
Akashi class frigates of the divine wind – the Plasma really hurt in the 0-3 range so that is were they want to be, the downside is that @damon s guns also hurt more there and there are more of them. The frigates were never going to put a dent in anything with Torpedoes in this game, and at the middle range the frigates are even more out gunned that up close. This it the beauty of the game system @oriskany have deviced here, it seem to have rewards for doing what your ships want to do (but only when… Read more »
I think I’ve mentioned before that one of the great things about this game is that it always seems to start cautiously. Careful movement and shots, and then suddenly Boom! and the second half begins where both sides try to pick up the pieces. Those strike frigates are fun and aggressive but I think they really need that shield bonus Oriskany gave them to balance points in this and the last game. Otherwise long range fire has a better chance of knocking them out.
Keep the good stuff coming!
The Urakaze now have a permanent shield upgrade, for a battlestar
Thanks very much @rasmus and @muakhah – Yeah, part of the “problem” (although that might not be the right word) is that sometimes ships just don’t work well together, or don’t work in large fleets or small fleets, or don’t work well with cruisers as opposed to destroyers or carriers or battleships or what have you. Like a lot of games, especially points-based games, part of the game is in the list-building. I’ve noticed ships like the Akashis work a lot better in aerospace or torpedo-heavy games, which the Japanese are NORMALLY into. Sticking close to their flagships, their mass… Read more »
Indeed @muakhah – sometimes @aras or @gladesrunner and I call it the “Turn 3 Smackdown” -it seems to happen in a lot of games. Not ALWAYS – but it definitely is a noticeable trend. Exceptions include big carrier games – where the first big blood letting is sometimes delayed until Turn 4 (since it sometimes takes three turns for the carriers to get their whole aerospace group launched, then a turn to close to optimum launch position) – and sometimes things happen much faster. In the recent 400-point “championship” game between @gladesrunner and I (ironically also a British v. Japanese… Read more »