Persei-Aries War Resumes

Here is some great writing community member @damon put together to describe some of the aftermath of the recent Third Battle of Hawking’s Star.   This was a pretty large Darkstar game we had on January 25, part of our continuing Third Hercules War community campaign here on OTT.

Battle: Third Hawking’s Star
Date: 25 May 2521
Planet: Lucy’s Hope (HR6806-D)
System: Hawking’s Star (HR6806), Hercules SCS
Points: 514 per side (Assault Rules)
Russo-American Player: Jim (Oriskany)
British Players: Damon and Jennifer (Gladesrunner)

While the battle’s outcome didn’t quite turn the course of the war outright, it was a shattering setback for naval forces of the United States and the Holy Russian Empire, a conclusive end to any Russo-American plans to take the British Hawking’s Star colonies (HR6806 star system), a desperately-needed reprieve for the British naval forces in the Hercules Rim, and a huge vindication of the Royal Navy in general.

During the game, one of Damon’s warships (HMS Retribution, a Relentless-class light cruiser, Commander Helena Seacole) had her port bow burned wide open by point-blank broadside of a Russian Slava-class heavy cruiser.  While the Retribution survived the onslaught, then rolled on her back to protect this wounded side from further fire, she nevertheless could not stop all the American fighters USN Fighter squadron VSF-221 (The Dead Rabbits), who made a costly but ultimately successful gunnery strafing attack against the Retribution’s unshielded port bow.  The bridge was hit, thus leaving the Retribution crippled and adrift.

After the battle, we see what crippled ships are recovered, scuttled, captured, or destroyed by enemies, and what commanders may or may not have been killed, captured, or lost in space.

Losing ALL Bridge/CIC boxes on your ship not only cripples the ship, but compels your commander to make a d10 roll for survival.  This roll is 1-6 on a d10.  Damon actually FAILED that roll, indicating that Commander Seacole was killed.  The game does have “Commander’s Luck” upgrade that commanders can buy at their option (once they’ve accumulated enough campaign points), but Seacole did not have this upgrade purchased.  So she was still dead.

Fortunately, Commander’s Luck re-rolls are transferable within a given battlegroup or Task Force, so another of Damon’s commanders, Captain Edward Cavendish (captain, HMS Agamemnon), was able to re-roll Seacole’s survival check and this time she survived.

So in game terms, Seacole survived the American fighter attack, but only through the leadership, skill, and outright luck of her task force commander.  We determined that she was badly wounded, and only survived through the work of damage control / medic teams transferred from the Agamemnon to the crippled Retribution after the battle, probably after the Agamemnon had taken the Retribution in tow.

Based on all that background, Damon put together the writing below.  The writing is his, all I added was some basic graphics.