captainsmartass
Mongoose
Captain's log, Stardate 2013.281, Starship Australia. Battlegroup Kirov has detected a large sensor anomaly in an area of their patrol sector comprising mostly dust and a few asteroid fields. Captain Herzog and his Science Officer think it might be a sizable Romulan fleet moving under cloak and have requested that Battlegroup Australia render assistance. After running at maximum warp we've rendezvoused with them and it appears they were right.
Sides: Federation versus Romulan
Points: 2000 per side
Order of battle:
Federation:
USS Kirov - BCH
USS Wolverine - CF
USS Prometheus - CS
USS Ramius - FFB
USS Tanache - FFB
USS Australia - BCH
USS Kongo - CC
USS Yorktown - CA
USS Texas - CL
USS North Carolina - CL
USS Burke - FFG
USS Hornblower - FFG
USS Beaty - FFG
Romulan:
IRV Imperator - CON
IRV Phoenix - FH
IRV Karzan - FFH
IRV Avenger - SpH
IRV Arrow - SkH
IRV Conqueror - KRC
IRV Senatarian - KR
IRV Praetorian - KR
IRV Rapier - KF5R
IRV Sunwing - BH
IRV Draco - SNP
The sector held three dust clouds, all along the southern long sector edge, and three asteroid fields: one small one near the dust clouds, another small one on the northern edge, and one large one along the western edge. The middle of the sector was devoid of terrain.
The Federation fleet managed to outmaneuver the Romulans and came into the sector in the area with the largest concentration of dust clouds, denying the Romulans the ability to hide behind both cloaking and space dust.
The Australia's squadron and the battle frigate squadron take up position in a dust cloud.
The Kirov's squadron and the frigate squadron in another dust cloud.
The Federation light cruisers huddle amongst some asteroids.
The Romulans wait under cover of their cloaking devices.
The Romulans all started the battle cloaked. Due to an oversight on the part of the Romulan admiral, the IRV Praetorian does not start the battle right away. Instead, she warps in after the shooting has already started.
Turn 1:
The Romulans get the upper hand on the Federation and elect to linger on their side of the board. All ships stay cloaked, while the Federation cruisers put all power to engines and advance up close and personal. The frigate squadrons and the light cruiser squadron hang back in reserve.
Some phaser sniping gets a few shield hits on the Avenger and Imperator, but nothing major.
The Federation fleet closes in.
Turn 2:
The Romulan fleet slinks forward, still under cloak. The Feds take this opportunity to close the distance and take a few more pot shots with phasers, again scoring the paint on the Imperator and the Avenger.
The Romulans watch warily as the Federation cruiser squadron bears down on their flagship.
Turn 3:
Klaxons begin sounding around the Federation fleet as all of the Romulan ships decloak. In response, the Federation ships close to point-blank range.
The Australia's squadron, facing the Imperator, opens fire first. Successive volleys of overloaded photons and some of the phaser-1s pummel the Romulan flagship, blowing it to pieces in a single round of shooting. Careful restraint on the part of the Federation admiral means the ship is merely rendered a hulk and it does not explode as it dies. The squadron's remaining shots take off some shields from the Karzan but most of the phasers are kept in reserve as plasma defense.
Cruisers targeting the dreadnaught...
...which has much to dread!
Seeing their flagship die, the Romulans turn their attention to the Kirov. The Avenger, Conqueror, and Senatarian all fire alpha strikes at the heavy battlecruiser, gutting her and getting some small measure of revenge.
Revenge!
Their triumph is short lived, however, as the Kongo and Yorktown blast apart the Avenger
and both Federation frigate squadrons kill two of the Romulan tin cans (the Arrow
and Draco are both blown apart so completely they do shield damage to the Tanache and Beaty, respectively).
The Phoenix and Karzan launch torpedoes at the Prometheus and with their combined weight manage to get past her defenses enough to nearly cripple her, knocking out the drone racks and causing a cascade event through the ship's weapons systems that damages the dilithium chamber. The Sunwing also gets some torpedo shots at the Hornblower, crippling her.
Turn 4:
The Romulans manage to seize the initiative and the IRV Praetorian comes out of warp just as the USS Kongo and Yorktown maneuver past her fellow Klingon hulls, setting up an optimal firing solution on the Kongo.
The old-style light cruisers close the gap between themselves and the original Kestrels, overloading their unfired torpedoes as they do. The uncrippled frigates attempted to close the gap with their damaged sister ship, while also maneuvering to provide support to the cruisers.
On the other end of the map, the Prometheus' weapons systems feedback further damage the dilithium chamber and her captain orders all hands on deck to contain the raging fires threatening his ship. Her squadron mates form a cordon around her, chasing away the two Romulan new-style cruisers with threats of more phaser and drone fire.
The Federation battle frigates, already on the flank of the Arrow, merely turn a bit in place, lining up better firing solutions. Seeing the danger this poses, her captain orders a high-energy turn, hoping to bring her plasma tubes to bear along with her stronger front shield. Unfortunately, the sublieutenant at the helm was only there because his uncle was an aide to a powerful Senator, and not because he knew how to handle a starship. As the ship groaned and the impulse drive overloaded itself, the turn stopped abruptly with both Federation battle frigates sitting comfortably on her port flank.
As the ships began to open fire on one another again, the Federation light cruisers turned their attention to the Conquerer, scoring multiple phaser and three overloaded photon hits against her, one of which ignored shields. Even with those most of those hits practically bouncing off the reinforced forward shields of the former-Klingon hull, the torpedo that got through scored multiple hits against her impulse drive, doing even more damage and taking her to an early doom. As the antimatter in the torpedo destroyed the last safety interlock on the fusion reactor of the impulse drive, the ship was torn apart by multiple secondary explosions.
The other Kestrels can only watch helplessly as their countrymen die in front of their eyes.
The Arrow's captain watched in horror as the Conquerer disappeared from his plot. He barely had time to shoot the fool sublieutenant who had doomed him and his ship with his personal disruptor before a torrent of phaser fire took down his remaining shields and two drones evaded his point defense to tear into his ship, rendering it a dead husk in space.
A "burning" example of why nepotism is bad.
The Senatarian manages to score a few lucky hits with long-range phaser fire and finishes off the Hornblower.
The Praetorian, meanwhile, watches in disgust as one of her torpedoes is destroyed before impacting the Kongo's untouched shields and she merely shrugs off the other as it delivers barely a glancing blow.
Turn 5:
The remaining Romulans all made haste to get out of the sector. Both the Karzan and Phoenix put all power to their engines, entering one of the dust clouds near the edge of the sector. The Praetorian and Senatarian both easily moved out of the sector and jumped to high warp (the former after succeeding at a high-energy turn).
While both of the battle frigates managed to keep the fleeing cruisers in range, their sensors were unable to get effective locks due to the intervening dust particles and none of their torpedoes scored hits, though a few phaser shots took down some of the shielding on the Phoenix. The sole remaining Romulan smallboy, the Sunwing, previously damaged by phaser fire from the Federation FFGs, was hit by two long-range drones from the Australia, pummeling her hull and killing her crew.
The Federation battle frigates try to prevent the escape of Romulan cruisers.
Long-range drone attack on the Sunwing finishes her off.
Turn 6:
The last of the Romulans exited the sector, leaving the Federation in sole command of this region of space.
Result: win for the Federation.
Captain's Log, supplemental. While the loss of the USS Kirov can only be described as devastating, especially on a personal level, I can't help but be pleased at the results of this engagement. Captain Herzog had been my roommate at the Academy; I feel deeply not only his loss, but all 503 members of his crew and the 167 crewmembers from the Hornblower. I only hope bloodying the Romulans' nose as badly as we did can give their deaths some meaning.
Sides: Federation versus Romulan
Points: 2000 per side
Order of battle:
Federation:
USS Kirov - BCH
USS Wolverine - CF
USS Prometheus - CS
USS Ramius - FFB
USS Tanache - FFB
USS Australia - BCH
USS Kongo - CC
USS Yorktown - CA
USS Texas - CL
USS North Carolina - CL
USS Burke - FFG
USS Hornblower - FFG
USS Beaty - FFG
Romulan:
IRV Imperator - CON
IRV Phoenix - FH
IRV Karzan - FFH
IRV Avenger - SpH
IRV Arrow - SkH
IRV Conqueror - KRC
IRV Senatarian - KR
IRV Praetorian - KR
IRV Rapier - KF5R
IRV Sunwing - BH
IRV Draco - SNP
The sector held three dust clouds, all along the southern long sector edge, and three asteroid fields: one small one near the dust clouds, another small one on the northern edge, and one large one along the western edge. The middle of the sector was devoid of terrain.
The Federation fleet managed to outmaneuver the Romulans and came into the sector in the area with the largest concentration of dust clouds, denying the Romulans the ability to hide behind both cloaking and space dust.
The Australia's squadron and the battle frigate squadron take up position in a dust cloud.
The Kirov's squadron and the frigate squadron in another dust cloud.
The Federation light cruisers huddle amongst some asteroids.
The Romulans wait under cover of their cloaking devices.
The Romulans all started the battle cloaked. Due to an oversight on the part of the Romulan admiral, the IRV Praetorian does not start the battle right away. Instead, she warps in after the shooting has already started.
Turn 1:
The Romulans get the upper hand on the Federation and elect to linger on their side of the board. All ships stay cloaked, while the Federation cruisers put all power to engines and advance up close and personal. The frigate squadrons and the light cruiser squadron hang back in reserve.
Some phaser sniping gets a few shield hits on the Avenger and Imperator, but nothing major.
The Federation fleet closes in.
Turn 2:
The Romulan fleet slinks forward, still under cloak. The Feds take this opportunity to close the distance and take a few more pot shots with phasers, again scoring the paint on the Imperator and the Avenger.
The Romulans watch warily as the Federation cruiser squadron bears down on their flagship.
Turn 3:
Klaxons begin sounding around the Federation fleet as all of the Romulan ships decloak. In response, the Federation ships close to point-blank range.
The Australia's squadron, facing the Imperator, opens fire first. Successive volleys of overloaded photons and some of the phaser-1s pummel the Romulan flagship, blowing it to pieces in a single round of shooting. Careful restraint on the part of the Federation admiral means the ship is merely rendered a hulk and it does not explode as it dies. The squadron's remaining shots take off some shields from the Karzan but most of the phasers are kept in reserve as plasma defense.
Cruisers targeting the dreadnaught...
...which has much to dread!
Seeing their flagship die, the Romulans turn their attention to the Kirov. The Avenger, Conqueror, and Senatarian all fire alpha strikes at the heavy battlecruiser, gutting her and getting some small measure of revenge.
Revenge!
Their triumph is short lived, however, as the Kongo and Yorktown blast apart the Avenger
and both Federation frigate squadrons kill two of the Romulan tin cans (the Arrow
and Draco are both blown apart so completely they do shield damage to the Tanache and Beaty, respectively).
The Phoenix and Karzan launch torpedoes at the Prometheus and with their combined weight manage to get past her defenses enough to nearly cripple her, knocking out the drone racks and causing a cascade event through the ship's weapons systems that damages the dilithium chamber. The Sunwing also gets some torpedo shots at the Hornblower, crippling her.
Turn 4:
The Romulans manage to seize the initiative and the IRV Praetorian comes out of warp just as the USS Kongo and Yorktown maneuver past her fellow Klingon hulls, setting up an optimal firing solution on the Kongo.
The old-style light cruisers close the gap between themselves and the original Kestrels, overloading their unfired torpedoes as they do. The uncrippled frigates attempted to close the gap with their damaged sister ship, while also maneuvering to provide support to the cruisers.
On the other end of the map, the Prometheus' weapons systems feedback further damage the dilithium chamber and her captain orders all hands on deck to contain the raging fires threatening his ship. Her squadron mates form a cordon around her, chasing away the two Romulan new-style cruisers with threats of more phaser and drone fire.
The Federation battle frigates, already on the flank of the Arrow, merely turn a bit in place, lining up better firing solutions. Seeing the danger this poses, her captain orders a high-energy turn, hoping to bring her plasma tubes to bear along with her stronger front shield. Unfortunately, the sublieutenant at the helm was only there because his uncle was an aide to a powerful Senator, and not because he knew how to handle a starship. As the ship groaned and the impulse drive overloaded itself, the turn stopped abruptly with both Federation battle frigates sitting comfortably on her port flank.
As the ships began to open fire on one another again, the Federation light cruisers turned their attention to the Conquerer, scoring multiple phaser and three overloaded photon hits against her, one of which ignored shields. Even with those most of those hits practically bouncing off the reinforced forward shields of the former-Klingon hull, the torpedo that got through scored multiple hits against her impulse drive, doing even more damage and taking her to an early doom. As the antimatter in the torpedo destroyed the last safety interlock on the fusion reactor of the impulse drive, the ship was torn apart by multiple secondary explosions.
The other Kestrels can only watch helplessly as their countrymen die in front of their eyes.
The Arrow's captain watched in horror as the Conquerer disappeared from his plot. He barely had time to shoot the fool sublieutenant who had doomed him and his ship with his personal disruptor before a torrent of phaser fire took down his remaining shields and two drones evaded his point defense to tear into his ship, rendering it a dead husk in space.
A "burning" example of why nepotism is bad.
The Senatarian manages to score a few lucky hits with long-range phaser fire and finishes off the Hornblower.
The Praetorian, meanwhile, watches in disgust as one of her torpedoes is destroyed before impacting the Kongo's untouched shields and she merely shrugs off the other as it delivers barely a glancing blow.
Turn 5:
The remaining Romulans all made haste to get out of the sector. Both the Karzan and Phoenix put all power to their engines, entering one of the dust clouds near the edge of the sector. The Praetorian and Senatarian both easily moved out of the sector and jumped to high warp (the former after succeeding at a high-energy turn).
While both of the battle frigates managed to keep the fleeing cruisers in range, their sensors were unable to get effective locks due to the intervening dust particles and none of their torpedoes scored hits, though a few phaser shots took down some of the shielding on the Phoenix. The sole remaining Romulan smallboy, the Sunwing, previously damaged by phaser fire from the Federation FFGs, was hit by two long-range drones from the Australia, pummeling her hull and killing her crew.
The Federation battle frigates try to prevent the escape of Romulan cruisers.
Long-range drone attack on the Sunwing finishes her off.
Turn 6:
The last of the Romulans exited the sector, leaving the Federation in sole command of this region of space.
Result: win for the Federation.
Captain's Log, supplemental. While the loss of the USS Kirov can only be described as devastating, especially on a personal level, I can't help but be pleased at the results of this engagement. Captain Herzog had been my roommate at the Academy; I feel deeply not only his loss, but all 503 members of his crew and the 167 crewmembers from the Hornblower. I only hope bloodying the Romulans' nose as badly as we did can give their deaths some meaning.
Oh, the Romulans will return!
