DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER
Desperate Battle against Panasian Dreadnought!
Battle report time! We’re taking a look at the Darkstar game this past Sunday between myself (Panasian League) and @damon (United Kingdom). This was a first look at some of the Second Wave ships that are now available (along with four new factions) – and also a look at one of the battleship designs that have been tweaked.
So in the past, including the very recent past with a battle involving my Germans (with a Tirpitz class battleship) and @damon and @gladesrunner ‘s cruiser task forces … battleships have fared very poorly. They will almost always lose initiative because of their size and low maneuverability (defined by their mass / surplus power ratio). I didn’t want to monkey with the math again, so instead just made a small adjustment … moving all the battleship’s secondary armament to the port and starboard quarters.
The hope was this would at least reduce the efficacy of the top tactic used by smaller ships to murder battleships … that is … to wolf-pack a point-blank series of broadsides and torpedo spreads right against the stern of the ship, which the battleship can rarely protect via maneuver because they are too slow.
Let’s see how this goes!
So here’s the opening map. The Panasian battleship Honghu (Red Tiger) is on her way back from an extended war cruise. She is undamaged, but not at 100% efficiency, either (in game terms, no battle or campaign upgrades). Escorted by a single frigate (PLN Laoshan, a Zhienha class missile frigate), she is trying to get back to her port at the lower right. However, the Bellerophon battlegroup (Trafalgar class heavy cruiser HMS Bellerophon, Indomitable class light cruiser HMS Indefatigable, and Falklands class destroyer HMS Terpsichore) is on an intercept course, with orders to “sink” the Panasian battleship before she can make port.
The Panasians are setting a shallow zig-zag course down along the planet, hoping to use the gravity and atmosphere of the planet to at least screen the battleship’s stern somewhat. Both sides now present broadsides at 2700 km, which should be terrifying for the British … but the ENTIRE Panasian volley misses. This is fortunate for the British, since Red Tiger’s initial forward barrage actually scored three lucky hits which left Indefatigable’s starboard bow heavily mauled. But now the Panasians have fired off a huge wave of torpedoes … relatively poor torpedoes that are easy to shoot down, don’t hit often, and don’t do much damage, but there are almost SEVENTY of them coming at the British … 
Getting close (in Darkstar terms, the average engagement range in this image is five hexes = 900 km) and here it gets nasty. British scouts are mowed down by Panasian mass drivers as the scouts try to protect the Terpsichore against the Chinese torpedo spread. Many Panasian torpedoes are shot down, and those that survive don’t do well against the British shields (recently upgraded aboard HMS Terpsichore). But a few get through, completely smashing out Terpsichore’s starboard engine and reactor array. She’ll be at -1/3 thrust for the rest of the game. Explosive broadsides are traded, damaging the Red Tiger slightly but blowing the Laoshan clean out of the battle (crippled, will later be recovered). Indomitable is also brutally mauled, especially along the starboard bow by the forward guns of the Red Tiger (gigantic 30 teravolt EPCs, the largest EPCs allowed in the game)
The Panasians seem to be running out of time. At last the Red Tiger can no longer keep her fantail safe from British broadsides, note that both HMS Bellerphon and Terpsichore are now right across her stern with every gun aboard at the murderously close range of 500 km. Furthermore, with the Laoshan now crippled, the Red Tiger has no escorts. However, the British broadside is not executed perfectly. Note the Indefatigable, out of position and hitting Red Tiger’s starboard quarter, not her stern. This is going to have terrible consequences later. The British broadside thus falls short of knocking out the Red Tiger, but still costs them the Indefatigable, ravaged by a 60-torpedo spread of Panasian warheads (note the other two British ships are a little too far away to provide effective mass driver defense), while the aft guns of the Red Tiger (including one of her two gigantic 60-kilogram plasma projectors) leave the Indomitable burning and adrift, crippled in space.
The Red Tiger doggedly continues to “staircase” down the planet’s surface, using the planet’s gravity to tug her bulk just a little closer to the atmosphere and thus hopefully SLIGHTLY more protected. As the Indomitable drifts upward (although only moving two hexes a turn, or six kilometers per second), she actually slips into a semi-stable orbit of the planet, but barely missing being pulled down into the atmosphere and destroyed forever. She will be thrown clear on Turn 8. Meanwhile, the vengeful Bellerophon and Terpsichore cut hard turns to port to pursue the lumbering Panasian giant. They will always outmaneuver her, but the Red Tiger can always outshoot them, even with only half her guns (presuming the British stay behind her and never allow her to use her forward batteries).
No guts, no glory. The Bellerophon closes to point-blank range for a second broadside directly into the battleship’s stern. A gutsy move, and perhaps even the correct one, if she still had a light cruiser or her destroyer escort doing the same thing at the same time. The Bellerophon’s prow is all but blown clean off, her starboard bow cored like an apple, starboard bow shields collapsing, and fires now started on the bridge. Forward magazines have exploded, mass driver mounts are gone, hangars are gone, sensors and maneuvering thrusters are gone … core damage also means there is heavy losses among the crew, in fact she already has a 75% chance of being forced out of the action. But the “Billy Ruffian” stands tall, Damon rolls a 92 percentile dice. SHE IS STAYING IN ‘TIL THE FIGHT’S DONE! 
At last both British ships close for ANOTHER point-blank broadside against the Red Tiger’s fantail. To make this maneuver with damaged thrusters, Bellerophon must present her gutted and unshielded starboard bow. ALL HANDS – EXCEPT GUNNERY CREWS – TO LIFEBOATS! The Terpsichore does the same. Both ships are gone, they know it … by now they’ve just taken too much damage. But can they take the Red Tiger with them, and at least force a draw? The odds say yes, by now the Red Tiger’s stern is torn asunder and she has major fires in engineering (11 critical boxes, easily enough to cripple a heavy cruiser, enough to explode a light cruiser, and a destroyer doesn’t even have 11 critical boxes in its frame). But the luck of the dice just punishes the British again. Not only is the Red Tiger’s stern shield still up (about the only external system the Red Tiger still has on this facing), but the Bellerophon scores a terrible roll to hit on her final broadside. The Red Tiger survives, while her hail of Tsing Tao torpedoes blows BOTH Bellerophon’s main forward turrets out of the hull and also explodes the bridge (the captain will make his survival roll). The gunnery of the Red Tiger than likewise crushes the Terpsichore, exploding forward magazines and putting her out of the fight as well. 
This cruel battle, by points, is a crushing 276-33 Panasian victory. I won’t lie, it feels good to win a game, and I’m also “glad” to see the British lose a game. For almost six months now, they’ve had an almost unbroken string of wins with Justin, Dave Hawes, Jennifer, and Damon. I was starting to worry if the faction was OP. Also, I am very glad that a battleship performed well. These “alpha predators” of Darkstar had lately been the “alpha clay pigeons” helpless lumbering elephants torn apart time and time again by packs of wolves and tigers. No more. 
All that said, this game was a LOT closer than the points would suggest. By averages, this should have been a draw, at least on the last turn of the game. A few missed opportunities by the British to put UNITED, COMBINED broadsides across the fantail of the Red Tiger might also have tipped the game. But even so, it came VERY close. Note the twelve boxes of critical damage done to the Red Tiger’s engines and reactors. Battleships start with a cripple number of 19+ . . . -12 critical hits = a 7+ to cripple her on a d6. So Damon was just one hit away from at least having a chance. Four more critical hits would have given him better than even money with a 3+ chance. And each of Bellerophon’s EIGHT main guns do four points of damage at this range. So literally one more well-placed hit could have made all the difference. I guess after that “1” rolled at the end of the Gold Beach Panzer Leader game, Lady Luck decided Damon owed her one. =)
Another good game but the misses and pitiful non critical damage to the stern of Red Tiger on the last turn was a real WTF moment. Lady Luck was a cast iron bitch on that roll… This battleship felt for more intimidating and dangerous to engage than the last battle against the Prussian one, there was no simple option of get behind and batter the critical parts, this time it was clear that this was a near suicidal option that would definitely cause serious harm in return. Battleships are ‘Queen of the Stars’ again. Definitely up for a Space Battle… Read more »
Thanks, @damon – although to be honest, Lady Luck was kind of being a bitch to you before that. Except for that 92% break off check, and maybe my first failure to shut down the Terpsichore via engine and reactor damage, I can’t remember a really good roll you had all game. Those last two turns were really a string of bad rolls, including a “1” and a “2” if memory serves for mass driver defense against those Panasian torpedo spread that eventually took out Bellerophon’s bridge. Indeed, battles with battleships in them tend to be slaughters. It’s because (as… Read more »
@damon you need to stop crossing the T behind the enemy – your crew seem to get nervous at the juicy targets
Yeah, need to work on that, next upgrade might be gunnery accuracy