Democratus
Mongoose
The Dilgar have continued to rampage across the Krish system. Earth and Centauri forces were stunned by the barbarity of the Dilgar as they virus bombed Demeter. Each had a different response. Earth mustered its entire fleet and moved to attack. The Centauri decided to give these monsters a wide berth (Terror Reigns Duty). But such was not to be, as the Dilgar moved to capture the rich mining resourses at the Gas Giant Krish V.
Scenario: Annihilation
Priority: Raid
Points: 7
Forces:
Centauri:
Vorchan x3 (Slitter, Flenser, Slicer)
Sulust x3 (Bold, Brave, Steadfast)
Maximus x3 (Hastato, Principio, Lorico)
Sentri Flight x16
Dilgar:
Battle Pentacon:
Omelos (Vigilant)
Ochlavita-Ki (Duty)
Jashakar Tae x3 (Javelin, Spear, Dart)
Scout Pentacon:
Ochlavita-Ki (Destiny)
Jashakar Vi x4 (Hunter, Quester, Thief, Seeker)
Carrier Squadron:
Garasoch x2 (Ire, Spite)
Jashakar Tae (Bolt)
Map:
The map had a dust cloud in the far left of my setup area. 12 inches further in is a lifeless rock.
There was an Asteroid field just right of center of the map.
Setup:
Initiative Dilgar.
Centauri set up the 3 Vorchans to my far left, in a squadron.
In the center he placed the 3 Sulusts, each with 4 Sentris in support.
A few inches behind each Sulust was a Maximus.
I set up my Scout pentacon in a line just behind the dust cloud on my left - directly across from the Vorchans.
To the right of this I placed the Carrier squadron, facing left so they could move to the dust cloud.
In my center, across from the enemy center, I placed the battle penatacon.
I then placed all 20 of my Torpedofighters in a phalanx directly across from the Vorchans.
My thinking was that I had to keep the Vorchan squadron from getting in range. They were fast and deadly. But they are highly vulnerable to fighters and escort ships can't keep up. So I plan to use my fighters to destroy them if they get too close.
Turn 1:
Initiative Centauri.
Scout pentacon passes.
The Vorchan squadron didn't want to charge toward the fighters (who could blame them) and so turned and moved toward the center, parallel to the long edge of the board. (Close Blast Doors!)
Battle pentacon passes.
Sullust Brave moves to my right around the back of the asteroids. (CBD)
Jash Tae Bolt leaves carrier squadron and moves behind the lifeless rock. (CBD)
Maximus Principio follows Brave around the back of the asteroids. (CBD)
Jash Vi Hunter breaks from pentacon and moves forward behind the lifeless rock. (CBD)
Sulust Steadfast moves forward, just to the left of the asteroid field. (CBD)
Carrier squadron gives Scramble! order and moves left toward dust cloud.
Maximus Hastato follows Steadfast and stops just behind and to the left of the asteroid field. (CBD)
Scout pentacon gives All Stop! order, staying out of sight behind the dust cloud. They don't need line of sight for scout functions and the enemy is too far away to reach.
Maximus Lorico moves forward, also to the left of the asteroid field. (CBD)
Now I'm down to just my battle pentacon. I calculate how far the sulusts can shoot and move them just outside range of their Battle Lasers. (CBD)
The last sulust Bold moves last. It lives up to its name, giving an APTE! order and racing forward, grazing the left edge of the asteroid field. He is in a spot where he can shoot at the Omelos Vigilant while keeping out of sight of 2 of my Jash Tae. Clever Centauri!
I then move my fighters forward and toward the center of the board - mirroring the Vorchans. This places the fighters all around and over the lifeless rock.
Scouts light up the Sulust Bold, in anticipation of missile fire.
No fighters are in range of anything.
The Bold fires on Vigilant, scoring light damage and no criticals.
Battle pentacon fires missiles at the Bold. But the CBD order limits Vigilant to a single launcher, and two of the Jash Tae don't have line of sight. Still, there are 10 dice of missiles. The Centauri lends interceptors from 2 Maximus. Combined with the 4 fighters flying support this gives Bold Interceptors 10! I do no damage, but all 4 supporting flights of fighters are killed.
All remaining fighters are launched: 3 Torpedofighters and 8 Dartfighters.
---
At this point it looks like a standard closing engagement. The Centauri is wary of my cloud of fighters, and I am trying to avoid taking too many beams to the face. The Vorchans are still the wildcard in my opinion.
Turn 2:
Initiative Dilgar.
Sulust Brave continues to move around the far side of the asteroid field. (CBD)
Battle pentacon passes.
Maximus Principio follows Brave around asteroids. (CBD)
Scout pentacon passes.
Sulust Bold manuvers toward the center of the board, determined to bring its weaponry to bear. (CBD)
The lone Jash Tae, Bolt moves from behind the planet and puts the Bold in its sights, just inside range. (CBD)
Maximus Lorico follows up behind Bold. (CBD)
The Vorchans turn and move forward, putting Bolt in range thanks to the Hunting Pack rule. (No SA)
Jash Vi, Hunter gives an All Stop! order and continues to hide behind the lifeless rock.
Maximus Hastato moves up next to Lorico. (CBD)
Scout pentacon moves forward and out of the dust cloud, it is still too far away for anything except the missiles on the command destroyer Destiny.
Finally the last Sulust, Steadfast moves up next to the Bold. (CBD).
Seeing that all four ships in the enemy center (2 Maximus, 2 Sulust) have given the CBD (Close Blast Doors) order, I decide it is time to charge in while they have very few weapons to fire at me.
Battle pentacon moves forward. The Omelos Vigilant must give an APTE order to get in range. It ends with its nose mere inches from the asteroid field, but with the Bold in its forward arc. The rest of the ships move forward and into range as well. The Och-Ki Duty and Jash Tae Javelin Concentrate Firepower! against the Steadfast. The other two Jash Tae (Spear and Dart) Concentrate Firepower! against the Bold. With any luck, this pentacon will eliminate the two Sulusts before they can even fire.
Carrier squadron moves into the dust cloud and turns toward my edge of the board. They may need to escape if things turn sour.
The fighters all move forward, half get in range of the lead Vorchan Slitter. The others move withing range of Steadfast. I feel the extra firepower may be needed since only two ships in battle pentacon targeted her.
Scouts painted the Vorchan Slitter as well as the Sulusts Bold and Steadfast.
Fighters fire. The shooting at the Vorchan is extremely poor, only doing light damage after the 2 interceptors lent from a Maximus. The other fighters fail to do any damage to the Steadfast as, with lending and fighters, it has Interceptors 8. Blast!
Battle pentacon fires. Vigilant, Spear and Dart all fire on the Bold, doing heavy damage but falling one point shy of cripling it. The rest of the pentacon fires on Steadfast but luck is not with me and it only suffers moderate damage.
The Vorchan squadron fires next at Bolt to prevent it from firing its missiles at the Bold. 36 dice of damage manage to tear the ship to shreds.
Scout pentacon fires. I check the distance, and the leader of scout pentacon Destiny is just within missile range of Bold. It fires and manages to do two points of damage to her, crippling the ship but doing no further damage.
Sulust Steadfast fires with its Ion Cannon, destroying the Javelin easily.
I have no more ships that can fire.
Sulust Brave manages to just see my Jash Tae Spear around the corner of the asteroid field. It also destroys it handily in a volley of Ion Cannon fire.
Sulust Bold fires and moderately damages the Jash Tae Dart.
None of the Maximus can fire due to CBD.
---
At this point things are coming apart for the Dilgar. Three Jashakar Tae are destroyed and I have only crippled one Sulust. I can't afford to trade losses like this. In addition, I'm now face to face with the four Centarui ships in the center. That's a lot of firepower for my non-pentacon of Omelos, Och-Ki, and Jash Tae to absorb.
Losses:
Centauri:
1 sulust crippled Bold
Dilgar:
Jashakar Tae x3 (Javelin, Spear, Bolt)
Turn 3:
Initiative Dilgar.
Maximus Principio continues to swing around the right side of the asteroid field. It has now cleared the area and has a clear field of fire into the battle pentacon...er, squadron. (No SA)
Scout pentacon passes.
Sullust Brave also clears the asteroids completely, threatening my center. (No SA)
The Garasoch carrier Ire breaks from the carrier squadron and moves just behind the dust cloud. (CBD)
Sullust Bold limps forward, almost on top of my battle squadron. (CBD)
The other Garasoch, Spite now moves inside the dust cloud. Both carriers have turned to leave the board next turn. (CBD)
Maximus Lorico moves forward to support the Bold. (No SA)
Scout pentacon moves forward now to go to battle. They line up the main centauri force (the 2 sulusts and 2 maximus) and give a Concentrate Firepower! order against the Lorico. The lead ship Destiny gives the Alpha Strike! order.
The Vorchan squadron does something unexpected. It puts All Power to Engines and races across the board. They end up at the edge of the Dust cloud with the carrier Ire in their forward arc.
I move my lone scout to also have the Lorico as a target.
The Sulust Steadfast also puts on the speed and races across the board, targeting the Ire with its lasers.
With the battle squadron in front of a lot of firepower, I decide to simply push it forward and through the enemy formation. This puts my squadron about 2" directly behind Lorico. At least nobody will be shooting them this turn, and the Och-Ki and Omelos have Turret weapons so it isn't all bad. It also puts the asteroids back in between the battle squadron and the sulust and maximus that just cleared the right side of the asteroid field.
I decide that I really need to punish the Vorchans for rushing my carrier. If I can kill two of them before they fire then I can save the carrier. About 3/4 of my fighters can reach range of the two rear vorchans. The rest move over to pester the Brave.
At this point my scouts really let me down. I only needed a 2+ on the rolls to paint the Vorchans. I got a 1 for every scout.
Fighter fire against the Vorchans was decent, but without the re-rolls from the scouts they were unable to even cripple a single vorchan. The other fighters managed to strip Brave of its fighter escorts through interceptor attrition.
One thing I learned from this battle. It's easier to kill fighters by making them intercept than it is to dogfight or shoot them.
Scout pentacon fires at the Maximus Lorico cripling it with a lucky critical.
The Vorchans open up on the carrier Ire, scoring no less than 10 criticals. The ship will drift and explode next turn.
Battle squadron fires their rear weapons at the Maximus Lorico and manage to just kill it.
The sulust Brave gets revenge by killing the Ochlikata Ki Destiny with a runaway beam (10 hits) that scores six criticals.
---
This turn was another bad trade for the Dilgar. The failure of the Scouts meant that the Vorchans escaped any real damage. The fighters represent a huge portion of my firepower. I need to use them well or all will be lost.
The good news, is that nearly all enemy fighters have been killed when acting as interceptors. This leaves me much more free to move my own fighters as I don't have to fear a maximus lending Anti-Fighter to sentri flights.
Losses:
Centauri:
Maximus Lorico
Dilgar:
Garasoch Ire
Ochlavita-Ki Destiny
Turn 4:
Initiative Dilgar.
At this point my opponent is happy with the losses he has inflicted, but realizes that he has no viable defenses against my still considerable (25+) horde of torpedofighters. Since this is a campaign and he has done a good deal of economic damage to me he decides to begin disengaging.
The crippled Bold limps across the board, trying to make it to the far side.
Scout pentacon passes.
Maximus Principio swings around the asteroid field and is now facing directly to the center of the board.
I move my remaining carrier Spite off the board. It must live to fight another day.
Sulust Brave continues to stick close to Principio and also moves toward the center of the board.
Battle squadron succeeds in two of three Come About! orders and brings its forward arcs to bear on Principio.
The Vorchan squadron does an APTE and leaves the board. There are too many fighters too close for them to try and stay.
The scout pentacon moves in for the kill against the Bold.
Maximus Hastato makes a break for the asteroid field, trying to open the distance and escape to the far side.
The lone scout Hunter moves to bracket Hastato.
Fighters now move en masse to surround the sulust Brave. I really want to silence that big laser before it can cut up the battle pentacon.
Scouts light up Brave and Principio.
The fighters finally come into their own as they land 20 hits onto Brave and reduce it to a burning hulk.
Hunter looks in trouble so I fire with it right away, scoring minor damage against Principio but depleting its interceptors.
Principio then answers by destroying Hunter with a well placed Matter Cannon volley.
Battle pentacon fires into Principio and destroys the Maximus with simple weight of fire.
The centauri have no more targets.
Scout pentacon fires on and finishes off the crippled sulust Bold.
---
Things really turned around in this turn. My fighters were finally able to concentrate due to a lack of enemy fighters, easily destroying a sulust in a single volley.
Losses:
Centauri:
Maximus Principio
Sulust x2 (Bold, Brave)
Dilgar:
Jashakar Vi Hunter
Turn 5:
Initiative Centauri.
All the Centauri have left on the board is the Maximus Hastato which is crippled by fighters and finished off by ships.
Result:
Centauri Losses:
Sulust x2 (Bold, Brave)
Maximus x3 (Hastato, Principio, Lorico)
Sentri x16
----
47 VP
Dilgar Losses:
Garasoch (Ire)
Ochlavita-Ki (Destiny)
Jashakar Tae x3 (Javelin, Bolt, Spear)
Jashakar Vi (Hunter)
-------
27 VP
For purposes of the scenario, the Dilgar also get 19 VP for the withdrawal of the 3 Vorchan and 1 Sulust and another 5 for being last on the board.
Result:
Dilgar victory (71 to 27)
Conclusion:
It seemed at the beginning that the Centauri was going to simply walk all over me. But I just needed time to clear out the enemy fighter cover so that my own fighters could then have the freedom to bomb at will. This took a couple of turns of pouring fire into his ships to burn away the supporting fighter flights.
My enemy has learned the terrible attrition of using fighters as interceptors. He has vowed to start purchasing Razik fighters in order to tie up my own fighters in dogfights. I think he will fare better with this strategy.
Still, it was a bloody fight for me. I lost a heavy carrier and a command destroyer. They will be expensive to replace. Fortunately I now have a brand new planet to help pay for these expenses.
Krish V is now Dilgar territory!
Scenario: Annihilation
Priority: Raid
Points: 7
Forces:
Centauri:
Vorchan x3 (Slitter, Flenser, Slicer)
Sulust x3 (Bold, Brave, Steadfast)
Maximus x3 (Hastato, Principio, Lorico)
Sentri Flight x16
Dilgar:
Battle Pentacon:
Omelos (Vigilant)
Ochlavita-Ki (Duty)
Jashakar Tae x3 (Javelin, Spear, Dart)
Scout Pentacon:
Ochlavita-Ki (Destiny)
Jashakar Vi x4 (Hunter, Quester, Thief, Seeker)
Carrier Squadron:
Garasoch x2 (Ire, Spite)
Jashakar Tae (Bolt)
Map:
The map had a dust cloud in the far left of my setup area. 12 inches further in is a lifeless rock.
There was an Asteroid field just right of center of the map.
Setup:
Initiative Dilgar.
Centauri set up the 3 Vorchans to my far left, in a squadron.
In the center he placed the 3 Sulusts, each with 4 Sentris in support.
A few inches behind each Sulust was a Maximus.
I set up my Scout pentacon in a line just behind the dust cloud on my left - directly across from the Vorchans.
To the right of this I placed the Carrier squadron, facing left so they could move to the dust cloud.
In my center, across from the enemy center, I placed the battle penatacon.
I then placed all 20 of my Torpedofighters in a phalanx directly across from the Vorchans.
My thinking was that I had to keep the Vorchan squadron from getting in range. They were fast and deadly. But they are highly vulnerable to fighters and escort ships can't keep up. So I plan to use my fighters to destroy them if they get too close.
Turn 1:
Initiative Centauri.
Scout pentacon passes.
The Vorchan squadron didn't want to charge toward the fighters (who could blame them) and so turned and moved toward the center, parallel to the long edge of the board. (Close Blast Doors!)
Battle pentacon passes.
Sullust Brave moves to my right around the back of the asteroids. (CBD)
Jash Tae Bolt leaves carrier squadron and moves behind the lifeless rock. (CBD)
Maximus Principio follows Brave around the back of the asteroids. (CBD)
Jash Vi Hunter breaks from pentacon and moves forward behind the lifeless rock. (CBD)
Sulust Steadfast moves forward, just to the left of the asteroid field. (CBD)
Carrier squadron gives Scramble! order and moves left toward dust cloud.
Maximus Hastato follows Steadfast and stops just behind and to the left of the asteroid field. (CBD)
Scout pentacon gives All Stop! order, staying out of sight behind the dust cloud. They don't need line of sight for scout functions and the enemy is too far away to reach.
Maximus Lorico moves forward, also to the left of the asteroid field. (CBD)
Now I'm down to just my battle pentacon. I calculate how far the sulusts can shoot and move them just outside range of their Battle Lasers. (CBD)
The last sulust Bold moves last. It lives up to its name, giving an APTE! order and racing forward, grazing the left edge of the asteroid field. He is in a spot where he can shoot at the Omelos Vigilant while keeping out of sight of 2 of my Jash Tae. Clever Centauri!
I then move my fighters forward and toward the center of the board - mirroring the Vorchans. This places the fighters all around and over the lifeless rock.
Scouts light up the Sulust Bold, in anticipation of missile fire.
No fighters are in range of anything.
The Bold fires on Vigilant, scoring light damage and no criticals.
Battle pentacon fires missiles at the Bold. But the CBD order limits Vigilant to a single launcher, and two of the Jash Tae don't have line of sight. Still, there are 10 dice of missiles. The Centauri lends interceptors from 2 Maximus. Combined with the 4 fighters flying support this gives Bold Interceptors 10! I do no damage, but all 4 supporting flights of fighters are killed.
All remaining fighters are launched: 3 Torpedofighters and 8 Dartfighters.
---
At this point it looks like a standard closing engagement. The Centauri is wary of my cloud of fighters, and I am trying to avoid taking too many beams to the face. The Vorchans are still the wildcard in my opinion.
Turn 2:
Initiative Dilgar.
Sulust Brave continues to move around the far side of the asteroid field. (CBD)
Battle pentacon passes.
Maximus Principio follows Brave around asteroids. (CBD)
Scout pentacon passes.
Sulust Bold manuvers toward the center of the board, determined to bring its weaponry to bear. (CBD)
The lone Jash Tae, Bolt moves from behind the planet and puts the Bold in its sights, just inside range. (CBD)
Maximus Lorico follows up behind Bold. (CBD)
The Vorchans turn and move forward, putting Bolt in range thanks to the Hunting Pack rule. (No SA)
Jash Vi, Hunter gives an All Stop! order and continues to hide behind the lifeless rock.
Maximus Hastato moves up next to Lorico. (CBD)
Scout pentacon moves forward and out of the dust cloud, it is still too far away for anything except the missiles on the command destroyer Destiny.
Finally the last Sulust, Steadfast moves up next to the Bold. (CBD).
Seeing that all four ships in the enemy center (2 Maximus, 2 Sulust) have given the CBD (Close Blast Doors) order, I decide it is time to charge in while they have very few weapons to fire at me.
Battle pentacon moves forward. The Omelos Vigilant must give an APTE order to get in range. It ends with its nose mere inches from the asteroid field, but with the Bold in its forward arc. The rest of the ships move forward and into range as well. The Och-Ki Duty and Jash Tae Javelin Concentrate Firepower! against the Steadfast. The other two Jash Tae (Spear and Dart) Concentrate Firepower! against the Bold. With any luck, this pentacon will eliminate the two Sulusts before they can even fire.
Carrier squadron moves into the dust cloud and turns toward my edge of the board. They may need to escape if things turn sour.
The fighters all move forward, half get in range of the lead Vorchan Slitter. The others move withing range of Steadfast. I feel the extra firepower may be needed since only two ships in battle pentacon targeted her.
Scouts painted the Vorchan Slitter as well as the Sulusts Bold and Steadfast.
Fighters fire. The shooting at the Vorchan is extremely poor, only doing light damage after the 2 interceptors lent from a Maximus. The other fighters fail to do any damage to the Steadfast as, with lending and fighters, it has Interceptors 8. Blast!
Battle pentacon fires. Vigilant, Spear and Dart all fire on the Bold, doing heavy damage but falling one point shy of cripling it. The rest of the pentacon fires on Steadfast but luck is not with me and it only suffers moderate damage.
The Vorchan squadron fires next at Bolt to prevent it from firing its missiles at the Bold. 36 dice of damage manage to tear the ship to shreds.
Scout pentacon fires. I check the distance, and the leader of scout pentacon Destiny is just within missile range of Bold. It fires and manages to do two points of damage to her, crippling the ship but doing no further damage.
Sulust Steadfast fires with its Ion Cannon, destroying the Javelin easily.
I have no more ships that can fire.
Sulust Brave manages to just see my Jash Tae Spear around the corner of the asteroid field. It also destroys it handily in a volley of Ion Cannon fire.
Sulust Bold fires and moderately damages the Jash Tae Dart.
None of the Maximus can fire due to CBD.
---
At this point things are coming apart for the Dilgar. Three Jashakar Tae are destroyed and I have only crippled one Sulust. I can't afford to trade losses like this. In addition, I'm now face to face with the four Centarui ships in the center. That's a lot of firepower for my non-pentacon of Omelos, Och-Ki, and Jash Tae to absorb.
Losses:
Centauri:
1 sulust crippled Bold
Dilgar:
Jashakar Tae x3 (Javelin, Spear, Bolt)
Turn 3:
Initiative Dilgar.
Maximus Principio continues to swing around the right side of the asteroid field. It has now cleared the area and has a clear field of fire into the battle pentacon...er, squadron. (No SA)
Scout pentacon passes.
Sullust Brave also clears the asteroids completely, threatening my center. (No SA)
The Garasoch carrier Ire breaks from the carrier squadron and moves just behind the dust cloud. (CBD)
Sullust Bold limps forward, almost on top of my battle squadron. (CBD)
The other Garasoch, Spite now moves inside the dust cloud. Both carriers have turned to leave the board next turn. (CBD)
Maximus Lorico moves forward to support the Bold. (No SA)
Scout pentacon moves forward now to go to battle. They line up the main centauri force (the 2 sulusts and 2 maximus) and give a Concentrate Firepower! order against the Lorico. The lead ship Destiny gives the Alpha Strike! order.
The Vorchan squadron does something unexpected. It puts All Power to Engines and races across the board. They end up at the edge of the Dust cloud with the carrier Ire in their forward arc.
I move my lone scout to also have the Lorico as a target.
The Sulust Steadfast also puts on the speed and races across the board, targeting the Ire with its lasers.
With the battle squadron in front of a lot of firepower, I decide to simply push it forward and through the enemy formation. This puts my squadron about 2" directly behind Lorico. At least nobody will be shooting them this turn, and the Och-Ki and Omelos have Turret weapons so it isn't all bad. It also puts the asteroids back in between the battle squadron and the sulust and maximus that just cleared the right side of the asteroid field.
I decide that I really need to punish the Vorchans for rushing my carrier. If I can kill two of them before they fire then I can save the carrier. About 3/4 of my fighters can reach range of the two rear vorchans. The rest move over to pester the Brave.
At this point my scouts really let me down. I only needed a 2+ on the rolls to paint the Vorchans. I got a 1 for every scout.
Fighter fire against the Vorchans was decent, but without the re-rolls from the scouts they were unable to even cripple a single vorchan. The other fighters managed to strip Brave of its fighter escorts through interceptor attrition.
One thing I learned from this battle. It's easier to kill fighters by making them intercept than it is to dogfight or shoot them.
Scout pentacon fires at the Maximus Lorico cripling it with a lucky critical.
The Vorchans open up on the carrier Ire, scoring no less than 10 criticals. The ship will drift and explode next turn.
Battle squadron fires their rear weapons at the Maximus Lorico and manage to just kill it.
The sulust Brave gets revenge by killing the Ochlikata Ki Destiny with a runaway beam (10 hits) that scores six criticals.
---
This turn was another bad trade for the Dilgar. The failure of the Scouts meant that the Vorchans escaped any real damage. The fighters represent a huge portion of my firepower. I need to use them well or all will be lost.
The good news, is that nearly all enemy fighters have been killed when acting as interceptors. This leaves me much more free to move my own fighters as I don't have to fear a maximus lending Anti-Fighter to sentri flights.
Losses:
Centauri:
Maximus Lorico
Dilgar:
Garasoch Ire
Ochlavita-Ki Destiny
Turn 4:
Initiative Dilgar.
At this point my opponent is happy with the losses he has inflicted, but realizes that he has no viable defenses against my still considerable (25+) horde of torpedofighters. Since this is a campaign and he has done a good deal of economic damage to me he decides to begin disengaging.
The crippled Bold limps across the board, trying to make it to the far side.
Scout pentacon passes.
Maximus Principio swings around the asteroid field and is now facing directly to the center of the board.
I move my remaining carrier Spite off the board. It must live to fight another day.
Sulust Brave continues to stick close to Principio and also moves toward the center of the board.
Battle squadron succeeds in two of three Come About! orders and brings its forward arcs to bear on Principio.
The Vorchan squadron does an APTE and leaves the board. There are too many fighters too close for them to try and stay.
The scout pentacon moves in for the kill against the Bold.
Maximus Hastato makes a break for the asteroid field, trying to open the distance and escape to the far side.
The lone scout Hunter moves to bracket Hastato.
Fighters now move en masse to surround the sulust Brave. I really want to silence that big laser before it can cut up the battle pentacon.
Scouts light up Brave and Principio.
The fighters finally come into their own as they land 20 hits onto Brave and reduce it to a burning hulk.
Hunter looks in trouble so I fire with it right away, scoring minor damage against Principio but depleting its interceptors.
Principio then answers by destroying Hunter with a well placed Matter Cannon volley.
Battle pentacon fires into Principio and destroys the Maximus with simple weight of fire.
The centauri have no more targets.
Scout pentacon fires on and finishes off the crippled sulust Bold.
---
Things really turned around in this turn. My fighters were finally able to concentrate due to a lack of enemy fighters, easily destroying a sulust in a single volley.
Losses:
Centauri:
Maximus Principio
Sulust x2 (Bold, Brave)
Dilgar:
Jashakar Vi Hunter
Turn 5:
Initiative Centauri.
All the Centauri have left on the board is the Maximus Hastato which is crippled by fighters and finished off by ships.
Result:
Centauri Losses:
Sulust x2 (Bold, Brave)
Maximus x3 (Hastato, Principio, Lorico)
Sentri x16
----
47 VP
Dilgar Losses:
Garasoch (Ire)
Ochlavita-Ki (Destiny)
Jashakar Tae x3 (Javelin, Bolt, Spear)
Jashakar Vi (Hunter)
-------
27 VP
For purposes of the scenario, the Dilgar also get 19 VP for the withdrawal of the 3 Vorchan and 1 Sulust and another 5 for being last on the board.
Result:
Dilgar victory (71 to 27)
Conclusion:
It seemed at the beginning that the Centauri was going to simply walk all over me. But I just needed time to clear out the enemy fighter cover so that my own fighters could then have the freedom to bomb at will. This took a couple of turns of pouring fire into his ships to burn away the supporting fighter flights.
My enemy has learned the terrible attrition of using fighters as interceptors. He has vowed to start purchasing Razik fighters in order to tie up my own fighters in dogfights. I think he will fare better with this strategy.
Still, it was a bloody fight for me. I lost a heavy carrier and a command destroyer. They will be expensive to replace. Fortunately I now have a brand new planet to help pay for these expenses.
Krish V is now Dilgar territory!
