Persei-Aries War Resumes
Damon + Gladesrunner v. Oriskany
Last Saturday, myself, Damon, and Jennifer had a game of Darkstar. No big story arc, no campaign background. Just a fun smash-em-up with some of our favorite ships. Now, since so many of our “favorite ships” have been upgraded to the point of madness, this means that even a game with a relatively small ship count will be very heavy in points, as upgrades to your ships and command crew naturally increase the point cost of your vessel.
So this was a big one, a 772-point Darkstar game that would up taking about 5.5 hours once we got going.
Damon and Jenn (@gladesrunner) teamed up as the British. I took a force of my favorite Russians and Americans, with one huge Russian battlecruiser to balance the points.
BRITISH FORCE:
TASK FORCE “A” (Lord Commodore Edward Cavendish)
Trafalgar-class heavy cruiser HMS Agamemnon
Relentless-class light cruiser HMS Retribution
Falklands-class destroyer HMS Sheffield (ISLE upgrade)
TASK FORCE “K” (Commodore Rhea Aubrey)
Iron Duke-class heavy cruiser HMS Kraken
Inflexible-class light cruiser HMS Inflictor
RUSSO-AMERICAN FORCE:
Kirov-class battlecruiser CPK Potemkin
Kutuzov-class light cruiser CPK Admiral Lazarev
San Antonio-class light cruiser USS Northampton
Valcour-class destroyer USS Oriskany (FRAM-I upgrade)
RAID Victory Conditions
Here is the match up. The big boy on the table is of course the battlecruiser Potemkin (basically a “fast” battleship). But don’t be fooled, even as 322 points she has to watch out for the 202-point heavy cruisers Agamemnon and Kraken. The light cruisers are running 140-170 ... and even the destroyers Sheffield an Oriskany have been upgraded to borderline absurd levels (98 and 130 points, respectively). This is a clash of some of the best on offer from the respective navies. 
The British largely lose initiative on the initial approaches, setting up a vector away from the planet at speeds ranging from 24-30 kilometers per second (8-10 hexes). The Russians and Americans come on even faster, running at 33 kps, using the planet’s gravity for a slight velocity assist, all while leaning on the retros to decelerate to 24 kps. This will allow the least maneuverable ship in their fleet, the Potemkin, to make a facing change next turn. The Americans and Russians are also clearly seizing the “gravity gauge” – putting themselves between the enemy and the planet. This serves two purposes, it helps decelerate to battle speed when we turn away from the planet toward the enemy, and it forces the enemy to turn TOWARD the planet to engage us. This means they’re running the risk of planetary collisions if they lose power due to battle damage. On the other hand, it also gives the British the first big broadside of the game, which they open fire on the USS Oriskany at about 5400 kilometers, which the Oriskany weathers passably well due to her heavily-upgraded shielding, except for an early hit on her maneuvering thrusters (ouch). On the OTHER hand, all forward arcs on the Russian and Americans hips are presenting near-full torpedo spreads at the British. Watch out. The electronic warfare stations on the British bridges all just exploded with a swarm of red lights. 
Lord Commodore Cavendish comes full about to present another broadside, again hammering the USS Oriskany (now presenting a different facing with even heavier shielding). The Americans also give the British a broadside, along with the heavy forward 25-teravolt EPCs and 12-gigawatt rail guns of the Potemkin. The British light cruiser Inflictor takes the worst of it, if only because her shielding is SLIGHTLY less than the rest of the British ships, and Commodore Rhea Aubrey has taken her two ships just a little bit closer to the Russian and American guns.
The Potemkin has finally slowed to the point where she can make more than one facing change per turn, but as a battleship, she usually loses initiative so the British cruisers have can stay out of her full broadside. To do so they must dive toward the planet, but they’re engines have been upgraded (and their captains are managing their velocity and momentum) to the point where this is little trouble. It does leave Cruiser Squadron “K” a little isolated from Cruiser Squadron “A”, a fact of which the Russians and Americans take full advantage with a devastating torpedo strike on HMS Inflictor. This, plus a barrage of gunfire that hits Inflictor’s bridge (light cruiser USS Northampton scores the “killing” blow), knocks the ship out of the battle. The British, meanwhile, concentrate their broadsides (Cruiser Squadron A) and forward guns (Cruiser Squadron K) on the Potemkin, and do horrific damage to her starboard quarter ... but this is a battleship. There’s a LOT of armor and internal components to dig through. Core damage is done to Potemkin’s medical bay, but the crew holds it together for now.
Turn 4, and things get desperate. While the Inflictor careens out of control and the Cruiser Squadron A pivots for another broadside on the Potemkin. Bad news for the British, the Potemkin has rolled on her back (this is SPACE, after all) and is now presenting her PORT quarter to the British guns ... at least until HMS Kraken dives at the Potemkin to exchange point-blank broadsides with the gigantic Russian battlecruiser’s STARBOARD quarter. It’s a suicidal move, Commodore Aubrey just hopes she can trade her ship for the Potemkin and get the British back in this fight. Point-blank cannonades are changed ... but incredibly, both the Potemkin and the Kraken SURVIVE these volleys! The Kraken survives in large part due to her “Resolute Crew” upgrade, where her engineering crew makes the roll required to mitigate the damage in reactors and engines and keep the Kraken from losing power. Russian and American torpedo strikes go for the HMS Sheffield. The British scout planes rush in to help defend the Sheffield, only to be swept from the stars by the merciless mass driver fire from the Potemkin (yes they are close enough ... barely). The Lazarev and Northampton fire on the Sheffield as well, but it’s USS Oriskany that gets the “killing blow” on the British destroyer.
Now horrifically damaged on both port and starboard quarters, the battlecruiser Potemkin is raising best possible steam to escape the table under her own power. This game is set for RAID victory conditions, remember. If she makes it off under her own power, she yields no victory points to the British. The Lazarev, Northampton, and Oriskany try to cover her fantail as best they can. The British oblige, now shifting fire to the Northampton and blowing her starboard quarter almost clean off (note she is also inverted in space). The Kraken hobbles away from her toe-to-toe slugging match with a battleship almost here times her size, hammered by ANOTHER mass torpedo spread, which again she somehow survives.
Raid games always end on Turn 6 ... (Rule 5.2.2) and the Russians and Americans take full advantage. The Potempkin can ALMOST make it off the table, but not quite. Still, with the range re-opened to 4000 kilometers and presenting a fully-armored and shielded fantail, she’s more or less free and clear. The American light cruiser Northampton is swifter, and wisely escapes the table before she can be finished off. This does have two unfortunate side effects, it nullifies Northampton’s last torpedo strike, and leaves USS Oriskany to suffer the vengeance of the British warships. While the Lazarev and Oriskany put yet another volley of torpedoes and gunnery into the Kraken (the Lazarev making a point-blank run at the Kraken), FINALLY putting down this ship (Resolute Crew is the only thing that saves her from outright DETONATION), the British put their last broadsides (and frutrations) into the USS Oriskany, which goes down with an laser hit to the bridge from HMS Retribution. Meanwhile, the Kraken is crippled, but not before doing enough damage to the Lazarev that she is FORCES to break off (half victory points). Thus the game shakes out as a Russo-American win, 432-205. (+227 margin, or 29% of the original 772 point total) 
The incredible amount of damage suffered by HMS Kraken. 
The terrible damage done to battlecruiser Potemkin. Note the 5+ notation at lower right ... the British COULD’VE won the battle if that d6 cripple number had been a 5+. But they rolled a 2. Had they scored that cripple, that’s +320 points to their score and an instant win. The British were also robbed on an 3+ cripple check on Admiral Lazarev. While they did make some mistakes in dividing their fleet against Russo-American torpedo strikes, the dice really were also against the British as well. In short, I think this game was a lot closer than the score would suggest.
Another brawling battle, good fun despite the loss.
No carriers, @damon – no troop landings – no special mission considerations – just big-gun ships slugging it out! 😀
Loss is to kind of a word for what happened. I got my ass Kicked! Though I agree, it was very fun. Too bad this isn’t considered historical wargaming so Jim could stream on Sundays.
1-2 questionable decisions, but really some bad dice rolling, or lucky dice rolling on my part. Put them together and you have a long-overdue RUsso-American victory. Had this taken place at certain points of the actual timeline in the Third Hercules War, that war might have turned out very different!
Great stuff, have to get a game or two of Darkstar in soon